US peace plan to offer Palestinians half West Bank, Abu Dis as capital

Rasa - US President Donald Trump has proposed to establish a Palestinian state with limited sovereignty over around half of the West Bank and Abu Dis as its capital, an Israeli intelligence website reports.

News ID: 437821

Date: 21 May 2018 - 22:51

RNA - The plan, due to be revealed next month, is reportedly intended to serve as a springboard for more negotiations between Israel and Arab governments, DEBKAfile reported Sunday.

Five administration officials told US media on Friday that Trump was preparing to reveal the "peace" plan after the end of the holy month of Ramadan in mid-June.

His son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, his special adviser for international negotiations, are the main authors of the text, it added.

Trump had discussed the text with three Arab leaders, namely Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, UAE emir Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed, Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh el-Sisi.

However, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declined an offer to come aboard even before tensions rose between Tel Aviv and Ankara over Israeli massacres in the Gaza Strip, the report said.

DEBKA revealed on April 27 some of the elements incorporated in the US plan, saying that it would be unveiled on the date scheduled by Washington, regardless of a Palestinian boycott.

Last December, Trump decided to recognize the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital.”

Trump’s declaration prompted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to formally declare that Palestinians would no longer accept the US as a mediator to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as Washington was “completely biased” towards Tel Aviv.

“The Israeli prime minister will issue a cautious statement proposing that the Trump plan be the springboard for immediate negotiations with Arab governments on certain mutually acceptable points,” DEBKA added.

According to Press TV, sources who have had access to Trump’s plan told DEBKAfile that a Palestinian state will be established with limited sovereignty across about half of the West Bank and all the Gaza Strip.

The besieged sliver of land, they said, will be integrated in the new state provided the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas agrees to give up its arms.

However, most of the West Bank and the border crossings will be under the Israeli security control, the sources revealed.

According to the plan, Palestinians are offered Abu Dis east of Jerusalem al-Quds as their capital.

Meanwhile, the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem al-Quds will be part of the Palestinian state, “excepting the Old City, which will be part of Israeli Jerusalem,” DEBKAfile said.

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