Pan-Islamic body OIC rejects Trump’s Mideast plan
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Feb 3 (AFP/APP): The Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Monday rejected US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Middle East, calling on its 57 member states not to help implement it.
The pan-Islamic body, “rejects this US-Israeli plan as it does not meet the minimum aspirations
and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and contradicts the terms of reference of the peace
process”, it said in a statement.
A meeting of foreign ministers at OIC headquarters in the Saudi city of Jeddah called on “all member states not (to) deal with this plan or cooperate with the US administration efforts to
enforce it in any way or form”.
Under the US plan unveiled last week, Israel would retain control of the disputed city of Jerusalem as its “undivided capital” and annex settlements on Palestinian lands.
Trump said Palestinians would be allowed to declare a capital within annexed east Jerusalem.
The OIC reiterated its support for east Jerusalem as capital of a future Palestinian state, stressing its “Arab and Islamic character”.
It said peace would “only be achieved with the end of the Israeli occupation, the full withdrawal from the territory of the State of Palestine in particular the holy city of Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem)
and the other Arab territories occupied since (the) June 1967 (Middle East war)”.
The Arab League on Saturday also rejected the controversial plan, saying at a meeting in Cairo that it did not meet the “minimum rights” of the Palestinians.
They insisted on a two-state solution that includes a Palestinian state based on borders before the 1967 war — when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza — and with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Saudi Arabia encourages negotiations between Palestine, Israel under U.S.
