The Palestinians have already rejected the proposal, accusing Trump of being biased in favour of Israel as he has adopted policies that bolster Israel at their expense.
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: IANS)
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan, envisaging a two-state solution but keeping Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital.
Speaking at the White House alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that support for the plan by both Netanyahu and his election rival, Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz, showed “peace transcends politics in Israel.”
Announcing the plan from the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing next to him, Trump said his plan “could be the last opportunity” for Palestinians, which, he said, “are in poverty and violence, exploited by those seeking to use them as pawns to advance terrorism and extremism”.
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“They deserve a far better life,” he said.
President Trump further said that the “peace vision” that Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has been working on for nearly three years calls for a two-state solution, includes detailed maps of the territory.
He said that the future Palestinian state will be contiguous, but would not be able to threaten Israel’s security interests.
Trump said his plan includes “a realistic two-state solution,” and that his administration would “work to create a territory for a contiguous Palestinian state in the future” that would “reject terrorism.”
The Palestinians have already rejected the proposal, accusing Trump of being biased in favour of Israel as he has adopted policies that bolster Israel at their expense.
Under the plan, Jerusalem will remain Israel’s “undivided capital,” Trump said, raising eyebrows after he had said that the capital of the Palestinian state would be in “eastern Jerusalem,” where the United States would “proudly open an embassy.”
He said making peace between Israel and the Palestinians “may be the most difficult challenge of all,” noting that many former US presidents had failed to achieve that.
“But I was not elected to do small things or shy away from problems,” he added
The plan 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.
(With inputs from agency)
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