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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan as ‘absolutely unacceptable’ today and accused it of ‘legitimising Israel’s occupation.’
He said the US president’s long-awaited deal ‘will not serve peace or bring about a solution.’
Erdogan was particularly scathing about the plan for Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital, Turkish broadcaster CNN Turk reported.
Erdogan said: ‘Jerusalem is sacred for Muslims. The plan to give Jerusalem to Israel is absolutely unacceptable.
‘This plan ignores Palestinians’ rights and is aimed at legitimising Israel’s occupation.’
Erdogan’s damning remarks came as violent protests continued in Gaza and the West Bank as Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers.
Trump unveiled his ‘vision’ alongside embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House yesterday.
He said there would be a ‘two-state solution’ with a tunnel linking the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
‘My vision provides a win win solution for both sides,’ the president said to great applause from the pro-Israel audience at the White House
Trump said it was a ‘vision for peace, prosperity and a new future’ for both Israel and Palestine as he spoke in the East Room of the White House, reading from a teleprompter and declining to take questions.
Netanyahu called it the ‘deal of the century’ but in Palestine, the president, Mahmoud Abbas dismissed it as ‘the start of the century.’
The White House pointedly did not call it a ‘plan,’ and Trump himself said Netanyahu had agreed it was a basis for ‘negotiation.’ But there was confusion over exactly what it was with Trump also tweeting that it was a ‘plan.’
Trump claimed Israel had a taken ‘a giant leap’ by signing up to a two-state solution. ‘We will also work to create a contiguous territory within the future Palestinian state, for when the conditions for statehood are met, including the firm rejection of terrorism,’ he said. The ‘vision’ unveiled on Tuesday more than doubles the territory currently under Palestinian control, although it also recognizes Israeli sovereignty over major settlement blocs in the West Bank, something to which the Palestinians will almost certainly object.
The Palestinians were not present, nor were Democrats, and neither was Netanyahu’s chief opponent Benny Gantz, who he will face in an election in March. Netanyahu himself had hours earlier given up fighting for immunity from corruption charges and is now indicted on them.
But Trump said: ‘For the first time in many, many decades, I can say: This will work.’
Netanyahu said he backed the starting point for talks because it ‘recognized Israeli sovereignty over sections of Judea and Samaria’ – meaning sections of what is currently defined as the West Bank – ‘which are vital to our security.’
He said Trump had recognized that ‘Israel must have sovereignty in the Jordan Valley,’ something which Palestinians have said they will never agree to.
The plan does call for a four-year freeze in new Israeli settlement construction, during which time details of a comprehensive agreement would be negotiated. However, it was not immediately clear if the freeze could be extended if a final deal is not concluded in the four years.
The 50-page political outline goes further in concessions to the Palestinians than many analysts had believed was likely. However, it would require them to accept conditions they have been previously unwilling to consider, such as accepting West Bank settlements. It builds on a 30-page economic plan for the West Bank and Gaza that was unveiled last June and which the Palestinians have also rejected.
Under the terms of the ‘peace vision’ that Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has been working on for nearly three years, the future Palestinian state would consist of the West Bank and Gaza, connected by a combination of above-ground roads and tunnels.
Trump use the speech to say he had been ‘good for Israel.’
He boasted about moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory – reversing decades of U.S. policy – and also boasted about leaving the Iran nuclear deal.
He claimed it could be a ‘last opportunity’ for the Palestinians to achieve statehood and gave as the reason the ‘smart team’ who had worked on it, highlighting the role of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose wife Ivanka was in the audience.
He also said he had told Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister that he needed to act while there was a four-year freeze on Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.
‘I explained to (Abbas) that the territory allocated for his new state will remain open and undeveloped for a period of four years,’ Trump said.
‘This could be the last opportunity they will ever have.
‘Palestinians are in poverty and violence, exploited by those seeking to use them as pawns to advance terrorism and extremism.’
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman echoed the president’s words, saying Palestinian had time to get on board.
‘Our goal is to demonstrate to the Palestinians that it’s a state to aspire to and achieve,’ Friedman told reporters on a conference call after the president unveiled his vision.
‘They have time. They have four years to figure this out,’ he said, adding ‘it’s theirs for the taking.’
But in the Occupied Territories, Palestinians rejected the plan.
Abbas said he would not support any proposal that would not see a Palestinian capital in all of East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City and numerous sites holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians.
Trump, in his remarks at the White House earlier on Tuesday, said that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel.
‘I say to Trump and Netanyahu: Jerusalem is not for sale, all our rights are not for sale and are not for bargain. And your deal, the conspiracy, will not pass,’ Abbas said in a televised address in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Abbas said it was ‘impossible for any Palestinian, Arab, Muslim or Christian child to accept’ a state without Jerusalem. Israel captured the eastern part of the city along with the West Bank and Gaza in a 1967 war.
The Palestinians would only accept negotiations based on international law and supported by U.N. Security Council resolutions, said Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.
The plan proposes setting up a Palestinian capital in the urban sprawl to the north and east of a concrete wall that Israel built through East Jerusalem more than a decade ago, during the last Palestinian uprising.
This physical barrier should remain in place and should serve as a border between the capitals of the two parties,’ the document says.
Hamas, whose stronghold is in Gaza, was scathing.
‘Trump’s statement is aggressive and it will spark a lot of anger,’ Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
At the White House Trump claimed widespread world support.
He said that Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson was among world leaders who had called him, saying that leaders had offered ‘to do anything to help.’
He also praised Mike Pompeo, his secretary of state, who had been revealed to have threatened, berated and launched an f-word rant at an NPR reporter then complained because he thought she had agreed to keep it secret.
‘You did a good job on her,’ Trump said, a comment likely to be seized on by critics.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan as ‘absolutely unacceptable’ today and accused it of ‘legitimising Israel’s occupation.’
He said the US president’s long-awaited deal ‘will not serve peace or bring about a solution.’
Erdogan was particularly scathing about the plan for Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital, Turkish broadcaster CNN Turk reported.
Erdogan said: ‘Jerusalem is sacred for Muslims. The plan to give Jerusalem to Israel is absolutely unacceptable.
‘This plan ignores Palestinians’ rights and is aimed at legitimising Israel’s occupation.’
Erdogan’s damning remarks came as violent protests continued in Gaza and the West Bank as Palestinians clashed with Israeli soldiers.
Trump unveiled his ‘vision’ alongside embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House yesterday.
He said there would be a ‘two-state solution’ with a tunnel linking the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
‘My vision provides a win win solution for both sides,’ the president said to great applause from the pro-Israel audience at the White House
Trump said it was a ‘vision for peace, prosperity and a new future’ for both Israel and Palestine as he spoke in the East Room of the White House, reading from a teleprompter and declining to take questions.
Netanyahu called it the ‘deal of the century’ but in Palestine, the president, Mahmoud Abbas dismissed it as ‘the start of the century.’
The White House pointedly did not call it a ‘plan,’ and Trump himself said Netanyahu had agreed it was a basis for ‘negotiation.’ But there was confusion over exactly what it was with Trump also tweeting that it was a ‘plan.’
Trump claimed Israel had a taken ‘a giant leap’ by signing up to a two-state solution. ‘We will also work to create a contiguous territory within the future Palestinian state, for when the conditions for statehood are met, including the firm rejection of terrorism,’ he said. The ‘vision’ unveiled on Tuesday more than doubles the territory currently under Palestinian control, although it also recognizes Israeli sovereignty over major settlement blocs in the West Bank, something to which the Palestinians will almost certainly object.
The Palestinians were not present, nor were Democrats, and neither was Netanyahu’s chief opponent Benny Gantz, who he will face in an election in March. Netanyahu himself had hours earlier given up fighting for immunity from corruption charges and is now indicted on them.
But Trump said: ‘For the first time in many, many decades, I can say: This will work.’
Netanyahu said he backed the starting point for talks because it ‘recognized Israeli sovereignty over sections of Judea and Samaria’ – meaning sections of what is currently defined as the West Bank – ‘which are vital to our security.’
He said Trump had recognized that ‘Israel must have sovereignty in the Jordan Valley,’ something which Palestinians have said they will never agree to.
The plan does call for a four-year freeze in new Israeli settlement construction, during which time details of a comprehensive agreement would be negotiated. However, it was not immediately clear if the freeze could be extended if a final deal is not concluded in the four years.
The 50-page political outline goes further in concessions to the Palestinians than many analysts had believed was likely. However, it would require them to accept conditions they have been previously unwilling to consider, such as accepting West Bank settlements. It builds on a 30-page economic plan for the West Bank and Gaza that was unveiled last June and which the Palestinians have also rejected.
Under the terms of the ‘peace vision’ that Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has been working on for nearly three years, the future Palestinian state would consist of the West Bank and Gaza, connected by a combination of above-ground roads and tunnels.
Trump use the speech to say he had been ‘good for Israel.’
He boasted about moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory – reversing decades of U.S. policy – and also boasted about leaving the Iran nuclear deal.
He claimed it could be a ‘last opportunity’ for the Palestinians to achieve statehood and gave as the reason the ‘smart team’ who had worked on it, highlighting the role of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose wife Ivanka was in the audience.
He also said he had told Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister that he needed to act while there was a four-year freeze on Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.
‘I explained to (Abbas) that the territory allocated for his new state will remain open and undeveloped for a period of four years,’ Trump said.
‘This could be the last opportunity they will ever have.
‘Palestinians are in poverty and violence, exploited by those seeking to use them as pawns to advance terrorism and extremism.’
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman echoed the president’s words, saying Palestinian had time to get on board.
‘Our goal is to demonstrate to the Palestinians that it’s a state to aspire to and achieve,’ Friedman told reporters on a conference call after the president unveiled his vision.
‘They have time. They have four years to figure this out,’ he said, adding ‘it’s theirs for the taking.’
But in the Occupied Territories, Palestinians rejected the plan.
Abbas said he would not support any proposal that would not see a Palestinian capital in all of East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City and numerous sites holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians.
Trump, in his remarks at the White House earlier on Tuesday, said that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel.
‘I say to Trump and Netanyahu: Jerusalem is not for sale, all our rights are not for sale and are not for bargain. And your deal, the conspiracy, will not pass,’ Abbas said in a televised address in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Abbas said it was ‘impossible for any Palestinian, Arab, Muslim or Christian child to accept’ a state without Jerusalem. Israel captured the eastern part of the city along with the West Bank and Gaza in a 1967 war.
The Palestinians would only accept negotiations based on international law and supported by U.N. Security Council resolutions, said Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.
The plan proposes setting up a Palestinian capital in the urban sprawl to the north and east of a concrete wall that Israel built through East Jerusalem more than a decade ago, during the last Palestinian uprising.
This physical barrier should remain in place and should serve as a border between the capitals of the two parties,’ the document says.
Hamas, whose stronghold is in Gaza, was scathing.
‘Trump’s statement is aggressive and it will spark a lot of anger,’ Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
At the White House Trump claimed widespread world support.
He said that Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson was among world leaders who had called him, saying that leaders had offered ‘to do anything to help.’
He also praised Mike Pompeo, his secretary of state, who had been revealed to have threatened, berated and launched an f-word rant at an NPR reporter then complained because he thought she had agreed to keep it secret.
‘You did a good job on her,’ Trump said, a comment likely to be seized on by critics.
