Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, showing earlier than the United Nations Security Council, angrily rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal on Tuesday as a reward to Israel and unacceptable to Palestinians.
Waving a copy of a map that the U.S. plan envisions for a two-state answer for Israel and Palestine, Abbas mentioned the state carved out for Palestinians regarded like a fragmented “Swiss cheese.”
In a potential rebuke to the Trump plan, a draft UN Security Council decision being circulated to council members by Tunisia and Indonesia would condemn an Israeli plan to annex its settlements within the West Bank.
If put to a vote, the textual content would face a sure U.S. veto however nonetheless mirrored some members’ dim view of the peace plan that Trump rolled out two weeks in the past with nice fanfare.
Released Jan. 28, Trump’s plan would acknowledge Israel’s authority over West Bank Jewish settlements and require Palestinians meet a tough collection of situations for a state, with its capital in a West Bank village east of Jerusalem.
“This is the state that they’ll give us,” mentioned Abbas. “It’s like a Swiss cheese, actually. Who amongst you’ll settle for a related state and related situations?”
Speaking at an election rally within the Israeli city of Bat Yam, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the criticism and hinted on the risk that Arab states may entertain the Trump plan even when Palestinians don’t.
“This will not be Swiss cheese. This is one of the best plan that exists for the Middle East, for the State of Israel and for the Palestinians, too,” he mentioned, including that the plan “acknowledges actuality and the rights of the individuals of Israel, each of which you continually refuse to acknowledge.”
Abbas urged Trump to disavow the plan and search a return to negotiations based mostly on present UN resolutions that decision for a two-state answer based mostly on pre-1967 border traces. He rejected conventional U.S. mediation in resolving the battle and referred to as for a world convention.
“The U.S. can’t be the only real mediator,” he mentioned.
Suggesting violent protests might escape, Abbas mentioned “the scenario might implode at any second.… We want hope. Please don’t take this hope away from us.” He later mentioned Palestinians wouldn’t “resort to terrorism.”
Although Trump’s acknowledged goal was to finish many years of battle, his plan favoured Israel, underlined by the Palestinians’ absence from his White House announcement with Netanyahu at his facet.
While Arab League international ministers on Feb. 1 rejected the plan, three Gulf Arab states — Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — had been represented on the White House announcement, suggesting that they could be prioritizing ties with the United States and a shared hostility towards Iran over conventional Arab alliances.
Abbas mentioned the deal will not be a world partnership however reasonably a proposal from one state supported by one other state to be imposed on Palestinians.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon accused Abbas of being unrealistic and mentioned peace was not attainable whereas he remained in energy.
A Feb. 5-Eight ballot carried out within the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research discovered that 94 per cent of Palestinians reject the plan, which Trump has referred to as the “Deal of the Century.”
