Bahrain Mirror: Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), dubbed the Bahraini and Emirati deals with Israel "peace for protection".

These two Arab countries will sign today (Tuesday), in Washington, a deal to normalize relations with Israel. This deal was met with a popular rejection, meanwhile, Abu Dhabi and Manama consider it a "sovereign decision".

Erekat said in an interview with the CNN channel "we can't call this step a peace treaty or peace for peace. It is a peace for protection. The US, which is an ally to a number of Arab States, plays this role."

He added that Jared Kushner, advisor and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, told "a number of decision makers in the Arab world that America is not obliged to continue doing these things (protection). You have to bring Israel. He wants to create an Arab-Israeli NATO in the region, which is very dangerous."

"It is said now that the Arab security system will rely on Israel as a focal point for its protection. This is unreasonable. Throughout history, Israel and the US have said that Israel alone should be stronger than all Arabs."

Erekat stated that it is not possible for Israel to be a part of the Arab national security system. Israel's job is attacking any Arab state which increases its strategic and technological value.

Regarding the possibility that the normalization would give the Arab states an opportunity to influence Israel, Erekat said that what is happening negates this. He continued "He (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) came out and said I will continue to settle, and I will continue to annex (the Palestinian territories), and said that there can be no Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and (the city) of Al-Quds will not be divided, and East Jerusalem in Al-Aqsa (the mosque) and (Church of the Holy Sepulchre) will be part of the capital of Israel."

"If you can't have an influence before the normalization decision, will you be influential after normalization, how will you have an influence after you have paid the price?" he wondered

Saeb Erekat "We expected the UAE and Bahrain, our brothers, to remain committed to what we agreed on in the Arab Peace Initiative...These strategic mistakes cost us a lot and we will pay for them, but at the end of the day there will be no security, peace and stability in this region without rooting up the swamp of Israeli occupation and achieving the independence of the State of Palestine."

Arabic Version