EU rejects Trump’s West Asia peace plan

Gulf Arab states have already rejected the White House plan as “biased"

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.

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.

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.”

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.

“We are especially concerned by statements on the prospect of annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank,” Borrell said.