A senior adviser to Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that the Warsaw conference jointly organized by US President Donald Trump's administration lacks credibility as it aims to "normalize the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory”.
"By fully siding with the Israeli government, (the Americans) have tried to normalize the Israeli occupation and the systematic denial of the Palestinian right to self-determination," said Nabil Shaath, according to, AFP.
The two-day conference, which convened for its main session in the Polish capital on Thursday, is officially devoted to security in the Middle East, with a strong emphasis on Iran.
But there was also time devoted to the Israel-PA peace process, as President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, presented an update on the US administration's proposals for peace.
Kushner said that the US Middle East peace plan would be presented after Israeli elections in April. While he refrained from going into detail about the plan, he did indicate said that both sides would have to “make compromises.”
Shaath said the PA had refused to go to the conference.
"The Warsaw conference is part of this context," he wrote, adding, "A peace process cannot be turned into an attempt to obtain amnesty for war crimes or to make one of the parties surrender its basic rights under the UN charter."
The PA has rejected the US peace plan being formulated by the Trump administration before it has even been unveiled and has been boycotting the US ever since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December of 2017.
Earlier this week, Trump’s envoy Jason Greenblatt confirmed that the PA had been invited to the Warsaw conference but chose not to attend.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat made clear last week that Palestinian Arab officials will not participate in the conference, describing it as “an attempt at bypassing the Arab Peace Initiative and destroying the Palestinian National project.”