Hawzah News Agency (Occupied Palestine) - A senior leader of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has strongly condemned the forthcoming US-led conference in Bahrain in support of President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for “peace” between the Israeli regime and Palestinians, dubbed “the deal of the century,” saying it amounts to Arab “normalization” of ties with the occupying Israeli regime.

Addressing representatives of foreign media in Gaza City on Thursday, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau, said that the upcoming confab, which is scheduled for June 25-26, are in line with US and Israeli attempts to pull the plug on the Palestinian national project, and aims to downgrade the Palestinian cause from the issue of people looking for freedom and independence to economic and humanitarian woes.

Haniyeh then called on Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah “not to hold this workshop,” vowing protests “in all Palestinian land and beyond.”

“We clearly express our rejection and non-acceptance of any Arab or Islamic country holding such a conference, which constitutes normalization with the occupation,” the senior Palestinian official pointed out.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh has described the US-sponsored economic workshop in Bahrain as a “strategic mistake,” arguing that the event will pave the way for Arab normalization of relations with the Tel Aviv regime whilst it continues to occupy Palestinian land and refuses to withdraw in defiance of the Arab Peace Initiative.