EU lawmakers slam Trump’s so-called Mideast plan

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - Members of the European Parliament voiced harsh criticism for the so-called U.S. Middle East ‘peace’ plan during a plenary session Tuesday.

The overwhelming majority of EU lawmakers agreed U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan goes against international law and is biased towards Israel.

“The proposal clearly challenges the internationally agreed parameters” of a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “It’s difficult to see how it can bring both sides to the table.”

Borrell acknowledged the plan could be a starting point for peace negotiations but he clearly denied it can be an endpoint for a long-term solution in the Middle East.

He said most EU member states did not even consider the plan “a good starting point.”

Dutch social democrat lawmaker Kati Piri called Trump’s plan “one-sided, illegal and intentionally provocative,” that aims at “legalizing settlement and annexation of the West Bank” and risks bringing “more suffering for the Palestinian people.”

She called the proposal “a cynical plan of two far-right leaders seeking support ahead of elections,” referring to Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

MEP Hilde Vautmans said the plan is a “one-state solution.” The Belgian centrist-liberal politician urged the EU to use its “credibility to intervene as an honest broker” and suggested Borrell initiate a peace conference.

Spanish far-left lawmaker Manu Pineda called the “deal” the “fraud of the century.”

Slovenian center-right politician Tanja Fajon warned the “EU should not reject the deal because it hates Trump.”

MEPs backing the plan remained in the minority during the plenary’s debate.

The U.S. president unveiled the controversial “Deal of the Century,” Jan. 28 to end one of the longest-running disputes in the Middle East.

Trump proposed an independent Palestinian state but with the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and Jerusalem as Israel's "undivided capital".

The so-called peace plan unilaterally annuls previous UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue and suggests giving Israel almost everything it demanded.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu slammed the so-called “peace” plan as an effort to "justify Israeli occupation and annexation of Jerusalem and the West Bank."

The EU doesn’t recognize Israel’s sovereignty over territories it has occupied since 1967.

EU foreign affairs ministers will discuss the topic at meeting in Brussels next Monday. U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo was invited to join the debate.