A US-led conference on economic aspects of a Middle East peace plan will go ahead next month in Bahrain despite Israel's snap elections, the State Department said Thursday.

The Trump administration will go ahead with its Bahrain conference in late June to lay out the economic part of its long-awaited Middle East peace plan, a U.S. official said on Thursday, despite the start of a new Israeli election campaign.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are putting Bahrain in the firing line. They are pushing Bahrain to do the dirty work that they don’t want to be responsible for. They don’t want to get their hands dirty when it comes to the economic conference to be held in Bahrain, dubbed the “Deal of Century” which Palestinians have rejected and called for boycotting.

Lebanon has not yet received an invitation to attend the conference in Manama, but plans to boycott if an invitation was received.

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh criticized Washington's decision to convene an economic conference on the Palestinian issue next month in Bahrain.

If the Palestinians themselves refuse to take part in the “Peace to Prosperity” workshop (first step of the so-called deal of the century) which is to be held in Manama in June, what does the Bahraini government still have to say to justify hosting the conference?

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia said they would send delegations to an economic summit in Bahrain next month, during which the Trump administration will roll out the first phase of its long-awaited peace plan.

Palestinian business leaders on Tuesday rebuffed U.S. plans for an economic conference in Bahrain that has become the spearhead of President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan.

“I do not know a country other than Bahrain carrying out a random naturalization process...we know what happened in Palestine, I don’t know any other country,” said imprisoned opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman while speaking about the catastrophic process of naturalization that Bahrain has been committed to.

This was it. The fears Bahrainis had were not misplaced. When two regimes that are rooted in lies and deceit, such as the Bahraini and Zionist regimes, gather, nothing can be expected other than what took place. They are two sides of the same coin of abjectness.

The Israeli delegation that allegedly cancelled taking part in the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Bahrain after news of its involvement sparked protests in the kingdom now seems to have visited after all, Channel 13 reported on Wednesday, according to the Jerusalem Post.

A delegation from the Israeli Foreign Ministry visited the Bahraini capital, Manama, this week to participate in a global entrepreneurship congress.

A delegation from Israel that was due to attend a conference in Bahrain this week has pulled out due to security concerns, the organizers said on Sunday, after Bahrainis held an extensive campaign against the visit.

Lawyer Ghassan Sarhan said on his Twitter page that the court ruled not to accept the lawsuit filed by a group of Bahraini lawyers to prevent the issuance of visas to Zionists.

More than 900 Bahraini figures have so far signed a petition against Zionist participation in Entrepreneurs Congress in Bahrain. The petition was issued by "The National Initiative to Resist Normalization with the Zionist Enemy in Bahrain, April 2019". The initiative wishes that signatories reach 1000 Bahrainis as numbers are still increasing.

The Israeli delegation which will participate in the Entrepreneurship Congress, to be held on April 15, will also attend on the same day morning a ceremony held by the US Embassy marking the National Day of the United States of America.

About 600 Bahraini figures are to take part, along with a Zionist delegation, in the Entrepreneurship congress to be held in a few days. Meanwhile the widespread popular campaign is still expressing condemnation, but its demands have fallen on deaf ears.

The General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions described the "invitation of a Zionist delegation to an economic conference to be held in Bahrain in April, under the auspices of Labour Fund "Tamkeen", as suspicious and shocking to Bahraini workers and people."

There isn’t a big margin for craftiness regarding the invitation given out to Israeli Economy Minister Eli Cohen to participate in the entrepreneurship congress hosted by Bahrain mid this month. The government denied, confirming the matter.

Kuwait's Minister of Commerce and Industry, Khalid Al-Roudhan, has decided not to participate in the Entrepreneurship Congress to be held in Bahrain from 15 to 18 of April, due to the presence of Israeli speakers at the conference.