President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled his administration’s long-awaited blueprint for Middle East peace, a plan that he hailed as a “win-win opportunity” for both Israel and the Palestinians despite its long odds for success.
Speaking from the East Room at the White House alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Trump outlined the details of the plan he has touted as the “deal of the century” and which has been more than three years in the making. He noted that the plan contained conditions for eventual Palestinian statehood, a framework he described as “a realistic two-state solution.”
The plan has nonetheless been preemptively rejected by Palestinian leaders over the expectation that it would allow Israeli annexations of West Bank settlement, which has historically been a nonstarter. Though Trump cast the plan Tuesday as potentially “the last opportunity they will ever have” at achieving Palestinian statehood, it would grant Israel sovereignty over the strategic Jordan Valley and existing Israeli settlements.
Israel would remain in control of security for the Jordan Valley and the Palestinian territory under the plan, at least for the foreseeable future.
The U.S., Trump announced, “will recognize Israeli sovereignty over the territory that my vision provides to be part of the state of Israel.” But while the plan would grant Israel sovereignty over settlement blocs in the West Bank, it would also institute a four-year freeze on new settlement construction while negotiations continue and to give the Palestinians time to meet the criteria for autonomy.
The framework will provide the Palestinians with a pathway to “a contiguous territory within the future Palestinian state, for when the conditions for statehood are met,” Trump said, “including the firm rejection of terrorism,” as well as the adoption of standards for human rights, religious freedoms and anti-corruption measures.
After his speech, Trump tweeted out a conceptual map that he said illustrated “the territorial compromises [Israel] is willing to make for the cause of peace.”
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