(JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s peace plan “or any part of this plan should not be considered as an international reference for negotiations.”
“It leaves Palestine fragmented. It will end all basis for a peace plan,” he said in an address to the council, adding, “Who among you would accept a similar state?” He pledged that the Palestinians “will not resort to violence or terrorism.”
The Security Council discussed the recently unveiled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan a day after unnamed diplomats told reporters that the Palestinian Authority withdrew its request to hold a vote on the resolution due to a lack of international support.
But Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the draft resolution remains in circulation and is still under discussion.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council that if Abbas were serious about peace, he would not be at the Security Council but would be holding direct negotiations in Washington, Jerusalem or Ramallah. He said Abbas’ “rejectionism” is encouraged by the international community, which “negotiates for him” through resolutions favorable to the Palestinians.
Kelly Kraft, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the peace plan is an open proposal.
“This is the beginning of negotiations and not the end. This is not an absolute plan,” Kraft said.
A senior Trump administration official praised the Security Council for “not putting forward a polarizing resolution.”
The council “demonstrated that the old way of doing things is over,” the official said. ” For the first time on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the council was willing to think outside the conventional box, and not reflexively fall back on the calcified Palestinian position, which has only allowed the failed status quo to continue.”
