CAIRO - Palestinians don't need this week's US-led Bahrain meeting to develop their country, they need peace, Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said on Sunday .
The US$50 billion plan envisions a global investment fund to lift the Palestinian and neighbouring Arab state economies. "We don't need the Bahrain meeting to build our country, we need peace, and the sequence of - economic revival followed by peace - is unrealistic and an illusion," Bishara said on the sidelines of a meeting of Arab finance ministers in Cairo.
In an address to Sunday's meeting at the Arab League headquarters, Bishara cited the"bitter experience" of the Palestinians since the 1993 Oslo Accords, including the US"We are careful and skeptical of what is called the deal of the century - or what was called a couple of days ago, the opportunity of the century," Bishara said.