Arab League rejects Trump’s Middle East plan

The Arab League on Saturday rejected US President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan, calling it “unfair” to Palestinians.

The pan-Arab bloc said in a statement that it “rejects the US-Israeli ‘deal of the century’ considering that it does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people.”

Arab leaders also vowed “not to … cooperate with the US administration to implement this plan.”

Abbas threatens to cut security ties with Israel, US

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to cut security ties with both Israel and the US on Saturday, in a lengthy speech delivered at an Arab League meeting in Egypt’s capital that denounced a White House plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The US plan would grant the Palestinians limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements there and keep nearly all of east Jerusalem.

The summit of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo was requested by the Palestinians, who responded angrily to the American proposal.

Abbas said that he told Israel and the US that “there will be no relations with them, including the security ties” following the deal that Palestinians say heavily favors Israel.

There was no immediate comment from US or Israeli officials.

The Palestinian leader said that he’d refused to take US President Donald Trump’s phone calls and messages “because I know that he would use that to say he consulted us.”

“I will never accept this solution,” Abbas said. “I will not have it recorded in my history that I have sold Jerusalem.”

He said the Palestinians remain committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state with its capital in east Jerusalem.

Abbas said that the Palestinians wouldn’t accept the US as a sole mediator in any negotiations with Israel. He said they would go to the United Nations Security Council and other world and regional organizations to “explain our position.”

“We still believe in peace using the basis [of plans laid out in] the Arab Peace Initiative and the UN Security Council resolutions,” Abbas said, adding that the authority would go to the UN Security Council to find a solution to the issue.

During the meeting, Abbas stated that Jerusalem did not just belong to Palestinians, but to all Arabs as well. He added that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz told him that the Kingdom would always stand with the Palestinians.

Saudi Arabia reaffirms its support for the Palestinian people and their just cause, the Kingdom’s foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan said during the emergency Arab League meeting.

The Arab League’s head, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, said the proposal revealed a “sharp turn” in the long-standing US foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“This turn does not help achieve peace and a just solution,” he declared.

Aboul-Gheit said that the Palestinians reject the proposal. He called for the two sides, the Israelis and the Palestinians, to negotiate to reach a “satisfactory solution for both of them.”

Aboul-Gheit urged the union’s members to formulate a unified stance on US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan.