Abbas: Trump peace plan ‘won’t amount to anything’

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas predicted that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Deal of the Century wouldn’t amount to anything.

By World Israel News Staff

Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas is predicting that U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” to bring Israeli-Palestinian peace will not be implemented.

Last Wednesday, the day after the Israeli general election, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said that the plan would be issued very soon.

American officials have stated that the details would be made public after the Israeli election. Washington says that various Arab countries have been consulted.

“Nothing will [be] coming from it, it won’t amount to anything,” said Abbas.

The PA leader was speaking at the inauguration of the new Palestinian government in Ramallah on Sunday, according to the Arutz Sheva website.

“We opposed the deal from the start, since it removed Al Quds [Jerusalem] from Palestine, so we didn’t want the rest of the deal, since there can be no [Palestinian] state without Al Quds, and there won’t be any state in Gaza and there won’t be a state without Gaza,” said Abbas, according to the website.

According to unconfirmed reports, Israel would retain sovereignty over almost all of Jerusalem under the terms of the plan with the exception of outlying Arab neighborhoods.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Two years later, Hamas overthrew the PA government there.

“Why does President Trump want to talk about any solution to any issue after he moved the embassy to Al Quds and recognized Al Quds as Israel’s capital? I don’t believe there is any reason to hold talks with him,” said Abbas, according to Arutz Sheva.

The PA announced a suspension in diplomatic contacts with the Trump administration in December 2017 after the president recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announced that he was moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.