Pakistan Senate passes resolution against Trump plan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan’s Senate or upper house of parliament unanimously adopted a resolution Monday rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial Middle East peace plan announced last month.

The resolution, tabled by Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan from Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s main religious party, was supported by all treasury and opposition members, state-run Pakistan Television reported.

Expressing concern over Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century,” which declared Jerusalem the “capital of Israel,” the senators said it was tantamount to an instrument of humiliating surrender by Palestinians to their oppressors.

The resolution also called for the issue to be fairly and peacefully resolved in light of UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, including the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, the safe return of all Palestinians to their homes and lands currently in illegitimate possession of Israeli settlers in breach of international law and a halt to acts of aggression against Palestinians.

It further urged the government to take steps to summon special sessions of the UN General Assembly and Organization of Islamic Cooperation to work out a consensus-based strategy “with due regard to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people as recognized by international law” for the amicable settlement of the Palestinian issue.

Trump unveiled his so-called “peace deal” during a press conference at the White House on Jan. 28 alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

His plan overwhelmingly eschews international consensus on the conflict, denying Palestinian refugees their right of return and enormously shrinking their borders within the West Bank.

The plan also unilaterally annuls previous UN resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and recognizes illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Among the details of Trump's plan, Jerusalem will remain Israel's "undivided capital,” a call which has prompted a fierce rebuke from the Muslim world.

Trump’s proposal also requires the "firm rejection of terrorism" from Palestinians and includes the recognition of a "contiguous" Palestinian state that would "double the Palestinian territory" over time once certain conditions are met. Israel would be granted sovereignty over the whole of the Jordan Valley in the eastern swath of the occupied West Bank.

Trump released via Twitter a copy of his "conceptual map" for a two-state solution that included greatly reduced Palestinian territory in the West Bank, which also included 15 "Israeli Enclave Communities" linked by Israeli access roads that cut through the envisioned Palestinian territory. That would recognize Israeli sovereignty over existing settlements, which are illegal under international law.