Demonstrators set fire to a makeshift Israeli flag during a protest against Bahrain’s conference about U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision for Mideast peace plan, in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, near Sidon, South Lebanon June 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho More than 200 protesters carrying Palestinian and Iraqi flags stormed the Bahrain embassy in Baghdad, Iraq on June 27 following the United States-led economic summit in Bahrain.
The Jerusalem Post reports that the protesters climbed over the embassy walls and into the embassy garden where they burned United States and Israeli flags and took down the embassy’s Bahrain flag. They also held signs protesting the summit, accusing the Arab states that participated of being “Arab Zionists who have sold their Arab identity for a failed deal.” Iraqi police fired live rounds in the air to disperse the crowd.
“We used our vehicle loudspeakers to encourage protesters to leave the compound,” a police officer told Reuters. “After they refused, police had to fire into the air.”
Bahrain recalled its ambassador and condemned the protests.
100s of Iraqi protesters stormed #Bahrain 🇧🇭 Embassy in #Baghdad raising #Palestinian 🇵🇸 & Iraqi flags in wake of #USA sponsored workshop & Bahraini foreign minister’s unprecedented interview to #Israel 🇮🇱 television channel calling for open communication with the Jewish state pic.twitter.com/OAqCOa0lOJ
— Saad Abedine (@SaadAbedine) June 27, 2019
لحظة اقتحام متظاهرون مقر #السفارة_البحرينية بـ #بغداد pic.twitter.com/W2KT5jwAyC
— قناة العهد (@ahadtv) June 27, 2019
The U.S. held the summit on June 26 and 27 in Manama with Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab states to discuss economic development for the Palestinian territories. White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, who is also President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, proposed an investment fund of nearly $28 billion to the Palestinian territories and another $22 billion to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon through “loans, grants and private investment,” according to CNBC.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said at a June 27 press conference in Ramallah that he would reject any U.S. peace proposal, arguing that Palestinian “national rights are not pieces of real estate that are purchased and sold.”
Hamas also condemned the conference.
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