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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to Trump peace plan: 'No, no and no'

Palestinians say Trump's "Deal of the Century" for Middle East peace highly favors the Israeli Jewish state. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI
1 of 5 | Palestinians say Trump's "Deal of the Century" for Middle East peace highly favors the Israeli Jewish state. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of Iran and Turkey have dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan as a one-sided proposal that ignores Palestinian interests.

At a meeting in the West Bank Tuesday, the leader of the Palestinian Authority called the plan "the slap of the century," as opposed to the "deal of the century" as it was touted by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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The proposal calls for a two-state solution, turns over chunks of the West Bank to the Palestinians and makes a conditional offer to place the Palestine capital in a part of East Jerusalem. Trump and Netanyahu said the plan is a "realistic" path to peace, but they didn't at all include Palestinian leaders in drawing up the framework of the proposal.

"We say a thousand times: No, no and no to the 'deal of the century,'" Abbas said, vowing that the U.S. plan "will not come to pass" and that "our people will send it to the dustbins of history."

The Palestinians have boycotted the United States after a series of moves made by the Trump administration since 2017 they see as having a pro-Israel bias.

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Trump's plan also allows for Israel annexation of territory in the West Bank it occupied after the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians and the United Nations consider the occupation, and the building of Jewish settlements there, to be illegal, and the Palestinians have long demanded that any future state be mapped out along pre-1967 lines with Jerusalem as its capital.

In return for accepting the proposal and renouncing the "terrorism" of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, Trump and Netanyahu have offered $50 billion in aid.

Abbas, however, said the offer amounts to a bribe, asserting that "Jerusalem is not for sale" and that the Palestinian people's "rights are not for sale or bartering."

"Will we accept a state without Jerusalem? It is impossible for any Palestinian, Arab, Muslim or Christian child to accept that," he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed the plan as a "nightmare."

"The so-called 'Vision for Peace' is simply the dream project of a bankruptcy-ridden real estate developer," he tweeted. "But it is a nightmare for the region and the world. And, hopefully, a wake-up call for all the Muslims who have been barking up the wrong tree."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said any deal in which the Palestinians are denied a say over Jerusalem was "unacceptable."

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"Jerusalem is sacred for Muslims," he said. "The plan to give Jerusalem to Israel is absolutely unacceptable. This plan ignores Palestinians' rights and is aimed at legitimizing Israel's occupation."

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