Palestinians reject Trump s Mideast peace plan: Advisor

Ramallah March 5 (IANS) Palestinians reject US President Donald Trump s Middle East peace plan an advisor of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday.

Nabil Shaath said in statements to the official Palestinian radio station that "there is no Palestinian acceptance to Trump s ideas therefore it does not matter when it would be announced".

He said "Palestinians will not accept an American plan to re-engage the sole American control over the peace process and if Washington wants to contribute to the peace process it must be part of a multi-lateral international framework".

Shaath said that the Palestinians were still seeking to formulate a multilateral international mechanism to overlook the peace process including Europe China and Russia Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to meet Trump on Monday to discuss several issues including the future of the peace process.

The last round of US-sponsored negotiations between Palestine and Israel achieved no breakthrough.

On December 6 2017 almost one year after Trump took office he recognized Jerusalem as Israel s capital and ordered the US State Department to move its Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

As a result the Palestinians disqualified the US from being the sole sponsor of the peace negotiations with Israel and called for a multilateral peace mechanism.

On February 20 Palestinian President Abbas presented a peace initiative in a speech at the UN Security Council proposing to hold an international peace conference in mid-2018 to jumpstart final status negotiation based on two-state solution and international legitimacy resolutions.

--IANS
soni/dg