BRUSSELS: The European Union on Tuesday rejected US President Donald Trump鈥檚 proposal for securing peace in the Middle East and expressed concern about Israel鈥檚 plans to annex more Palestinian land.
Trump鈥檚 plan, which was unveiled last week, would foresee the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, but it falls far short of minimal Palestinian demands and would leave sizable chunks of the occupied West Bank in Israeli hands.
In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell underlined the bloc鈥檚 commitment to a two-state solution, based along the 1967 lines, with the possibility of mutually agreed land-swaps, made up of the state of Israel and 鈥渁n independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable state of Palestine.鈥�
Borrell said the US initiative 鈥渄eparts from these internationally agreed parameters.鈥�
鈥淭o build a just and lasting peace, the unresolved final status issues must be decided through direct negotiations between both parties,鈥� Borrell said. 鈥淭his includes notably the issues related to borders, the status of Jerusalem, security and the refugee question,鈥�
Trump鈥檚 plan was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed it as 鈥渘onsense.鈥� Gulf Arab states also rejected the White House plan as 鈥渂iased.鈥� While Israeli officials were present for its unveiling, no Palestinian representatives attended.
Netanyahu has said he wants to move forward with plans to annex West Bank territory.
鈥淲e are especially concerned by statements on the prospect of annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank,鈥� Borrell said.
He suggested that the EU might consider legal action by saying that any 鈥渟teps toward annexation, if implemented, could not pass unchallenged.鈥�
The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem 鈥� areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war 鈥� for an independent state and the removal of more than 700,000 Israeli settlers from these areas.
But the plan sides heavily with Netanyahu鈥檚 hard-line nationalist vision for the region and shunts aside many of the Palestinians鈥� core demands.
EU foreign ministers have discussed in recent months whether the bloc should modify its Middle East policy amid growing concern that settlement activity and US diplomatic moves like the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel鈥檚 capital, are undermining the chances of a two-state solution.
Ireland and Luxembourg are among a small group of countries that support a change of position but no heavyweight member country is backing them.
In a letter to Borrell, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn wrote that hopes for a two-state solution are 鈥渂eing dismantled piece by piece, day after day,鈥� and that it is time to consider recognizing Palestine as a state.
Borrell has noted that member countries are 鈥渧ery much divided鈥� over how to handle Middle East peace moves. In Tuesday鈥檚 statement, he also underlined the EU鈥檚 鈥渇undamental commitment to the security of Israel.鈥�