CAIRO: The Arab League on Saturday rejecting US President Donald Trump’scontroversial Middle East plan said that it did not meet the “minimumrights” of the Palestinians.
The pan-Arab bloc convened in Cairo days after the US unveiled its planwhich is seen as favouring Israel.
The meeting brought together Arab senior officials including Palestinianleader Mahmud Abbas, Saudi Arabia´s foreign minister and the United ArabEmirates´ minister of state for foreign affairs.
In a statement released afterwards, the League said it “rejects theUS-Israeli ´deal of the century´ considering that it does not meet theminimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people.”
Arab states also vowed “not to … cooperate with the US administration toimplement this plan.”
They insisted on a two-state solution that includes a Palestinian statebased on borders before the 1967 Six-Day War — when Israel occupied theWest Bank and Gaza — and with east Jerusalem as its capital.
The US plan suggests that Israel would retain control of the contested cityof Jerusalem as its “undivided capital” and annex settlements onPalestinian lands.
Trump said Palestinians would be allowed to declare a capital withinannexed east Jerusalem.
The only Arab ambassadors present at the plan´s unveiling were fromBahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — three of Washington´s closestallies in a region where many nations host US forces.
Other Arab states gave carefully worded initial responses to the plan,which was strongly rejected by Palestinian leaders.
Abbas said on Saturday “there will be no relations” with Israel and the USincluding on security cooperation following their “disavowal of signedagreements and international legitimacy”.Palestinians reject Trump’s peace plan
Angry Palestinians have rejected US President Donald Trump’sIsraeli-Palestinian peace plan, who say that the plan was deserving to goin the “dustbin of history.”
Standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the WhiteHouse’s East Room, Trump said his plan could succeed where decades ofprevious US attempts to intervene had failed.
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“Together we can bring about a… new dawn in the Middle East,” Trump saidto an enthusiastic audience that included throngs of Israeli and JewishAmerican guests — but apparently no Palestinian representatives.
They are flat out rejecting the plan, which grants Israel much of what ithas sought in decades of international diplomacy, namely control overJerusalem as its “undivided” capital, rather than a city to share with thePalestinians. The plan also lets Israel annex West Bank settlements.
These include requiring the future Palestinian state to be “demilitarised,”while formalising Israeli sovereignty over settlements built in occupiedterritory.
Criticising previous US diplomatic efforts as overly vague, Trump notedthat his version was 80 pages long and contained a map depicting theproposed future neighboring states.
However, the Palestinians angrily rejected the entire plan.
“This conspiracy deal will not pass. Our people will take it to the dustbinof history,” Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said.
Trump promised a “contiguous” future Palestinian state, addressing thecurrent situation where Israel controls broad territory separating the twomain population centers of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
But the map showed the West Bank remaining riddled with Jewish settlementslinked to Israel and only a long road tunnel connecting the area with theseaside Gaza Strip.
The plan makes clear that Israel is free to annex its settlements onPalestinian lands right away.
On the flashpoint issue of Jerusalem, Trump said Israel should retaincontrol over the city as its “undivided capital,” Trump said. At the sametime, the Palestinians would be allowed to declare a capital withinoccupied East Jerusalem, he said.
The Hamas movement, which runs the Gaza Strip, said it could never acceptcompromise on Jerusalem being capital of a future state. -APP/AFP
