EU to Trump: Peace deal must include Palestinian state

Responding to Nikki Haley’s push for Trump’s “deal of the century,” eight European countries and Russia insisted that only a two-state solution could succeed.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The European members of the United Nations Security Council and Russia warned the American administration Tuesday that any Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement must include a Palestinian state. Otherwise, they said, it will be doomed to failure.

The statement came in reaction to outgoing U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s last remarks at the U.N. Tuesday, in which she did not mention the words “Palestinian state” when discussing the as-yet-unrevealed plan in general terms.

The absence of these words seemingly did not sit well with France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Sweden, Belgium and Poland. They issued a joint statement stressing the importance of “the internationally agreed parameters for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, based on international law, relevant UN resolutions and previous agreements.”

“The EU is truly convinced that a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital of both states” is the only viable and realistic way to end the conflict and achieve a just and lasting peace, satisfying “Israeli and Palestinian security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty” as well as ending the “occupation” and resolving all final status issues,” the statement said.

Russia, too, joined the chorus, with its UN representative, Vasily Nebenzya, telling the TASS news agency that “it is crucial to rely on a two-state solution.”

Haley said the plan is “different from all previous ones” and “recognizes the realities on the ground in the Middle East have changed” — as has technology, which can help both sides, although she did not give any specifics.

Charging the Palestinian leadership with clinging to “50-year-old demands that have only become less and less realistic” while their people “are suffering terribly,” she challenged them to be visionaries instead and to seriously consider the plan when it is revealed, hopefully early next year.

She emphasized that the Palestinians stand to gain tremendously if they enter negotiations. “What awaits the Palestinian people with a peace agreement are the prospects of a massive improvement in the quality of their lives and far greater control over their political future,” she said.