<p id="thickbox_headline">The European Union on Tuesday rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal for securing peace in West Asia and expressed concern about Israel’s plans to annex more Palestinian land.</p>.<p>Trump’s plan, which was unveiled last week, would foresee the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, but it falls far short of minimal Palestinian demands and would leave sizable chunks of the occupied West Bank in Israeli hands.</p>.<p>In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell underlined the bloc’s commitment to a two-state solution, based along the 1967 lines, with the possibility of mutually agreed land-swaps, made up of the state of Israel and “an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable state of Palestine.”</p>.<p>Borrell said the US initiative “departs from these internationally agreed parameters.” “To build a just and lasting peace, the unresolved final status issues must be decided through direct negotiations between both parties,” Borrell said.</p>.<p>“We are especially concerned by statements on the prospect of annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank,” Borrell said.</p>
<p id="thickbox_headline">The European Union on Tuesday rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal for securing peace in West Asia and expressed concern about Israel’s plans to annex more Palestinian land.</p>.<p>Trump’s plan, which was unveiled last week, would foresee the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, but it falls far short of minimal Palestinian demands and would leave sizable chunks of the occupied West Bank in Israeli hands.</p>.<p>In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell underlined the bloc’s commitment to a two-state solution, based along the 1967 lines, with the possibility of mutually agreed land-swaps, made up of the state of Israel and “an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable state of Palestine.”</p>.<p>Borrell said the US initiative “departs from these internationally agreed parameters.” “To build a just and lasting peace, the unresolved final status issues must be decided through direct negotiations between both parties,” Borrell said.</p>.<p>“We are especially concerned by statements on the prospect of annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank,” Borrell said.</p>