US' Middle East Plan:

90 Percent of West Bank for Palestine, Divided Jerusalem

The plan for the peaceful settlement of the Middle Eastern crisis, which is being prepared by the administration of US President Donald Trump will be presented in the coming months, the Israeli Reshet 13 broadcaster reported, citing the source, who attended a closed briefing by a US official on the plan.

News ID: 443064

Date: 18 January 2019 - 22:12

RNA - Under the plan, Palestine will receive twice more the territory they currently control. However, the historic center of Jerusalem, including its religious sites and nearby districts, and the Western part of the city will remain under Israel’s sovereignty, according to the outlet.

Moreover, Israelis will be able to annex major settlement areas in the West Bank and keep isolated settlements under their control without being able to enlarge them. However, Israel will have to evacuate the so-called illegal settlement outposts.

The plan also suggested that the losses from the scheme should be compensated from the mechanism of territorial exchanges, the broadcaster noted.

The outlet argued that the plan was the most suitable option of the Middle Eastern crisis settlement for Israel which had emerged over the past 20 years.

Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt deemed the Israeli television report about the US Middle East settlement plan inaccurate, and stressed that only official statements issued by US authorities were to be trusted.

The United States reportedly expect Palestinians to abandon their claims for the whole territory of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the historic part of the city. Moreover, Washington expects some concessions from Israel, which opposes the division of Jerusalem and Palestinian statehood.

The outlet noted that the US administration planned to roll out the paper several weeks ago but decided to put the move off until after the Israeli parliamentary elections, scheduled for April 9.

However, US Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt criticized Wednesday the recent media report, slamming the outlet's findings as "not accurate".

The Donald Trump administration has been working on its peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian settlement for months. However, Palestinians have rejected Washington’s involvement in the settlement of their conflict with Israelis after Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the Holy City despite the condemnation of the Muslim world and the UN recommendations to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in the city until its legal status is settled.

Israeli-Palestinian relations have been tense for decades, but tensions escalated in late March when Palestinians kicked off the Great Return March protests along the Gaza Strip, which dramatically evolved into violent clashes between Israeli security forces and demonstrators.

Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Wednesday that “any peace plan that does not include the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders would be doomed to failure”, according to WAFA.

He stated in a statement reacting to reports and leaks about the so-called "Deal of the Century" the American administration is trying to impose on the region in addition to efforts to find regional and international parties willing to cooperate with this plan that “all these attempts will reach a dead end because the address for achieving a just and lasting peace is the Palestinian leadership that affirms that any proposals related to the political process must be based on international resolutions and the principle of the two-state solution for the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

Abu Rudeineh stressed that “the road to achieving peace in the region is clear and it passes through the legitimate Palestinian leadership, and any projects aimed at circumventing the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people for freedom and independence will not succeed and will terminate. Our people will win regardless of the magnitude of these conspiracies and challenges facing our cause and our national constants”.

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