Trump Admin “Threatened Me” After Rejecting Peace Plan: Erdogan

We noted that immediately after President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s roll out of the ‘deal of the century’ Mideast peace plan on January 28, Turkey was the first country to condemn it internationally, and just days ago Erdogan’s director of communications, Fahrettin Altun, called it “a declaration of war, not a peace plan”.

In a stunning revelation Wednesday, Bloomberg now reports that President Erdogan says the US is threatening him and Intelligence Chief Hakan Fidan over Turkey’s rejection of the plan.

“Turkey rejected U.S. Middle East plan, which stands for occupation of Palestine and usurping Jerusalem. I talked to Mahmoud Abbas over the phone and met Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh face to face in Istanbul” Erdogan said in Ankara, as quoted by Bloomberg.

“Turkey’s strong reaction forced some Arab countries to step back from their support for the plan. Unfortunately now, U.S. threatens me and my intelligence chief. In addition, some financial institutions in Turkey under threat. Do whatever you can, you won’t succeed,” Erdogan said, underscoring the nature of it as a direct personal threat. 

For any proposed peace plan past or present it’s always been crucial that leading Arab nations in the region like Egypt or Jordan be on board. President Trump had initially initially touted support from some Gulf Arab states like Bahrain and United Arab Emirates. 

But the Arab League on Saturday declared its official rejection of the plan as bragged about by Erdogan this week. 

The pan-Arab bloc said as a result of the emergency session that it “rejects the US-Israeli ‘deal of the century’ considering that it does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people.” Mahmoud Abbas also announced in a scathing speech before the assembly of Arab leaders that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is cutting all ties with the US and Israel.

From the start both the PA and Hamas indicated the plan would be dead on arrival as they were not even privy to negotiations related to key components of the plan, especially the crucial part of the White House plan giving Israel ‘annexation’ rights over at least 30% of West Bank territory.

Erdogan had previously called the plan “absolutely unacceptable” and was quoted in CNN Turk as saying “Jerusalem is sacred for Muslims. The plan to give Jerusalem to Israel is absolutely unacceptable. This plan ignores Palestinians’ rights and is aimed at legitimizing Israel’s occupation.”