EU rejects Trump Middle East peace plan, annexation of parts of West Bank

The European Union rejected parts of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Middle East on Tuesday, prompting an angry response from Israel which has strongly backed the US proposal.

The plan, announced by Trump last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, was rejected outright by the Palestinians. It would give Israel most of what it has sought during decades of conflict, including nearly all Palestinian land on which it has built settlements.

The EU, which often takes time to respond to international developments because of a need for unanimity among its 27 members, had said last week that it needed to study the Trump plan before it would give its verdict.

It made its conclusions public on Tuesday in a statement from EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said Trump’s plan departs from “internationally agreed parameters”.

“To build a just and lasting peace, the unresolved final status issues must be decided through direct negotiations between both parties,” Borrell said, noting the issues of the borders of a Palestinian state and the final status of Jerusalem were among those still in dispute.

Steps by Israel to annex Palestinian territory, “if implemented, could not pass unchallenged,” Borrell said.

Israel responded sharply to the remarks by Borrell, a Spaniard in office since the start of December.

“The fact that the High Rep of the EU, Josep Borrell, chose to use threatening language towards Israel, so shortly after he assumed office & only hours after his meetings in Iran, is regrettable &, to say the least, odd,” tweeted Israeli Foreign ministry Spokesman Lior Haiat.

“Pursuing such policies & conduct is the best way to ensure that the EU’s role in any process will be minimized.”

EU policy in the Middle East tends to be cautious, as the bloc includes members with varying degrees of sympathy towards the Palestinians and Israel.

Some EU members have already recognised a Palestinian state, although the bloc as a whole says this is a matter to be resolved in peace talks.

The EU condemned Trump’s decision in 2017 to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying Washington had compromised its position as a mediator for peace.

UN Security Council draft resolution

Meanwhile, a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on Tuesday condemned the Israeli plan to annex its settlements in the West Bank.

The draft text, circulated to council members by Tunisia and Indonesia, would seemingly face a US veto, but nonetheless offered some members’ dim view of the peace plan that Trump rolled out last week with great fanfare.

Diplomats said negotiations on the text would likely begin later this week. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to speak to the council next week about the plan, possibly coinciding with a vote on the draft resolution.

The resolution “stresses the illegality of the annexation of any part” of occupied Palestinian territories and “condemns recent statements calling for annexation by Israel” of these territories, according to the draft seen by Reuters.

Trump’s plan, the product of three years effort by senior adviser Jared Kushner, would recognise Israel’s authority over the settlements and would require the Palestinians to meet a highly difficult series of conditions to be allowed to have a state, with its capital in a West Bank village east of Jerusalem.

Kushner is due to brief Security Council ambassadors on the plan on Thursday.

While the Palestinians have rejected the plan, a number of Arab governments have said it represents a starting point for a renewal of long-stalled negotiations.

The resolution stresses the need for an acceleration of international and regional efforts to launch “credible negotiations on all final status issues in the Middle East peace process without exception.”

A US veto at the council level would allow the Palestinians to take the draft text to the 193-member UN General Assembly, where a vote would publicly show how Trump’s peace plan has been received internationally.

- Reuters