Palestinians Ask EU to ‘Counter’ US Peace Plan if it Ignores Statehood

The Palestinian Authority is urging the European Union to reject the Trump Administration’s much-anticipated peace plan unless it calls for the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state. The PA ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, revealed that during a recent meeting with EU leaders in Brussels, he said the US had relinquished its historic role as an “honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and that he proposed an international conference to re-endorse the longstanding two-state paradigm as the only plausible solution to the conflict. “We would be extremely happy to show that there is more than one player on the field trying to determine how we move forward,” Mansour said in reference to his discussions in Belgium. He specifically pointed to Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has offered to hold direct negotiations between the parties and recently hosted PA leader Mahmoud Abbas as well as a Hamas delegation. Trump is slated to unveil his so-called deal of the century after the end of Ramadan in June even though Ramallah has repeatedly said it would not engage in the initiative. In fact, Abbas has maintained a boycott of the US administration since its recognition in December 2017 of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and the subsequent relocation of its embassy to the holy city. The Palestinian leadership views the White House and its peace team – comprising senior advisor Jared Kushner, lead negotiator Jason Greenblatt and Ambassador to Israel David Friedman – as biased toward Israel, and remains furious over Trump’s decision to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the PA. Moreover, Abbas is concerned that the American proposal will allow Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to fulfill his campaign promise to annex areas of the West Bank inhabited by Israelis. “If this is what they want to force on us, [a] one-state [binational] reality, the Palestinian people will accelerate their reproduction machines and increase the number of Palestinians to face apartheid,” Mansour said. The United Nations Security Council is convening for an informal meeting on Thursday to discuss the controversial matter of Jewish communities located in regions the Palestinians claim as part of a prospective state.