Abbas to rebuff Trump plan at UN meeting

By James Reinl

UNITED NATIONS (AA) - Palestinian officials will seek to galvanize opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial plan for Middle East peace at the UN Security Council in the coming weeks, Palestine’s ambassador to the UN said Wednesday.

Speaking with reporters in New York, Riyad Mansour said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would address the Security Council in the next two weeks and outlined plans for a draft resolution to oppose the peace plan that Trump unveiled Tuesday.

Mansour offered few details of what would appear in the draft resolution, saying only that it would use the “strongest possible” language and that Palestinian officials "would like to see strong, large opposition to this Trump plan."

On Tuesday, Trump, standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, unveiled a long-awaited plan for Middle East peace that was quickly criticized for favoring Israel and dashing Palestinian hopes of one day running their own country.

According to Mansour, the proposed deal gives Israelis the “upper hand” and “is not a recipe for peace or justice. It is a recipe for the destruction of the national right of the Palestinian people, and it will not fly.”

“It is not acceptable, and those who think the Palestinian people will evaporate -- they will not. Those who think the Palestinian people will pack up and leave -- they will not,” said Mansour, flanked by Tunisia’s UN ambassador.

Earlier, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the world body’s position on Israeli-Palestinian peace had not changed after the announcement of the U.S. peace plan and referred back to previous Security Council resolutions.

“The United Nations remains committed to supporting Palestinians and Israelis to resolve the conflict on the basis of United Nations resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements and realizing the vision of two states – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines,” Dujarric said in a statement.