Arab League Formally Rejects Trump’s “Deal Of The Century” – Abbas Cuts Ties With US

Well that didn’t take long. Despite President Trump previously touting support from some Gulf Arab states like Bahrain and United Arab Emirates for his ‘deal of the century’ Mideast peace plan unveiled at the White House Tuesday, the Arab League on Saturday declared it has officially rejected the plan. 

Meeting in an emergency session in Cairo the pan-Arab bloc stated it “rejects the US-Israeli ‘deal of the century’ considering that it does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people.”

Simultaneously Mahmoud Abbas 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.

“They told me Trump wants to send me the deal of the century to read, I said I would not,” Abbas told the meeting. “Trump asked that I speak to him over the phone, so I said ‘no’, and that he wants to send me a letter, so I refused to receive it.”

Holding up a map produced by the White House of the envisioned future ‘two-state solution’ and what the proposed new state of Palestine will look like, Abbas said further: “I challenge any of you, if you can even see us on the map.”

“If you ask a child in first grade to draw Trump’s map he will never know how to.” He added, “This is a disgrace.”

Abbas said he refused to go down in history as the person who “sold out Jerusalem”. The deal controversially cuts Palestinians out of control over holy sites of the Old City in Jerusalem, while claiming to offer parts of the city’s eastern sector to serve as capital of a future Palestinian state, but only if certain “conditions are met” long term. 

The Arab League further agreed “not to… cooperate with the US administration to implement this plan” while emphasizing that a two-state solution must include a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders recognized by the UN with the capital being East Jerusalem, according to Al Jazeera.

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, which Netanyahu has said parliament will move to vote on Sunday.

However, a number of commentators have noted the 181-page US-Israel proposal was almost designed to fail in the sense that it concedes all that Israel desires with little significant in the way of concessions to the Palestinians. Israel can then move forward with taking West Bank and Jordan Valley territory while claiming it extended an ‘open hand’ as part of the deal.