Palestine's Permanent Representative to the UN Riyad Mansour has described the peace deal submitted by US President Donald Trump as an “earthquake.”
Mansour said following his meeting with head of the Vietnamese permanent mission to the UN Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy that “there is not a single Palestinian official (who) will meet with American officials now after they submitted an earthquake, the essence of it the destruction of the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. This is unacceptable.”
He turned down an invitation by US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft to discuss the peace plan, wondering whether the Arab nations approve the Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and its sacred Islamic and Christian sites, including Al-Aqsa Mosque.
After his meeting with President of the UN General Assembly Tijani Muhammad-Bande, Mansour told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit New York on Feb. 10 and will hold talks with Security Council members the next day.
Responding to this, Craft said the US was ready to facilitate talks and that she was "happy to play any role" that contributes to the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan unveiled by the US President.
She said the plan presented by the Trump administration is a “very solid opportunity for peace in the region” adding that Palestinian leaders “have to want peace as much as we do, actually more than we do.”
Mansour warned that Trump’s plan gives Israel the right to transfer around 300,000 Palestinians who hold the Israeli nationality from Umm al-Fahm to Kfar Qasim.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said that “the position of the United Nations on the two-state solution has been defined, throughout the years, by relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions by which the Secretariat is bound.”
He added: “The United Nations remains committed to supporting Palestinians and Israelis in resolving the conflict on the basis of United Nations resolutions, international law, and bilateral agreements and realizing the vision of two States – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines.”
