In a meeting that brought together Arab senior officials, including Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister and the United Arab Emirates’ minister of state for foreign affairs, the Arab League rejected US President Donald Trump’s controversial Middle East plan, saying it did not meet the “minimum rights” of the Palestinians.
The meeting at the Arab League headquarters came at the request of the Palestinians days after the US unveiled its plan, which is seen as favoring Israel.
#Breaking: In unanimous vote the Arab League rejects Trump's peace plan pic.twitter.com/KUq2f4etso
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) February 1, 2020
"The plan leads to a status that amounts to a one-state situation that comprises two classes of citizens, that is apartheid, in which the Palestinians will be second-class citizens, deprived of the basic rights of citizenship," Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Saturday.
New: The Arab League has issued a bluntly-worded rejection of the White House plan for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and says it will not co-operate with US efforts to enforce the plan “in any way or form.”
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 1, 2020
Trump's long-awaited proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace would allow Israel to annex all its West Bank settlements, something that the Palestinians and most of the international community view as illegal.
It also allows for the annexation of the Jordan Valley, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the West Bank. Palestinians would be granted statehood in Gaza, scattered chunks of the West Bank and some neighborhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
The US has proposed to link these Palestinian sections through new network of roads, bridges and tunnels, while letting Israel control the state's borders and airspace, as well as maintain overall security authority.
Oh, and PS: The second map shown below is actually the UN partition plan, which was actually accepted by Israel but rejected by the Arab League and Arab Palestinians. The Arab Palestinian leadership subsequently rejected every single land settlement offer made by Israel to date. pic.twitter.com/S98Hr6dbXj
— أبو عمّار (@MaajidNawaz) January 29, 2020
President Mahmoud Abbas, who attended the meeting in Cairo, said he remained committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem.
BREAKING: Palestinian President Abbas in a speech in front of the Arab League Foreign Ministers: "I reject the Trump plan. I will not go down in history as the one who sold out Jerusalem"
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) February 1, 2020
"I will not have it recorded in my history that I have sold Jerusalem," he said, adding that he would cut security ties with the US and Israel.
Abbas said earlier that his response to Trump's proposal was "a thousand nos."
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit called for the Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate directly to reach a “satisfactory solution for both of them.” Abbas instead announced he’s severing all ties with Israel and the US, sending the Palestinians back 72 years. pic.twitter.com/NLI5ipWg6H
— Avi Kaner (@AviKaner) February 1, 2020
Meanwhile, Jordan, who has a peace treaty with Israel, warned against any Israeli "annexation of Palestinian lands'' and reaffirmed its commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state that included all the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
BREAKING: Arab League Rejects #Trump plan for Israeli-Palestinian deal. League is 22 countries.
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) February 1, 2020
Full Statement (3 pages in AR) below calls it “US-Israeli deal of century”: pic.twitter.com/M24OEWb4BM
The Arab League also vowed “not to cooperate with the US administration to implement this plan.”
They insisted on a two-state solution that includes a Palestinian state based on borders before the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza, and with east Jerusalem as its capital.
