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Arab League holds emergency meeting over Trump's Middle East plan

Protesters carry Jordanian and Palestinian flags and slogans during a protest against Trump's Middle East peace plan.
Jordan has warned against any Israeli "annexation of Palestinian lands".(AP: Raad Adayleh)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Palestine will cut security ties with both Israel and the US in a speech at an Arab League meeting in which he denounced the White House plan for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The US plan would grant the Palestinians limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, while allowing Israel to annex all its settlements there and keep nearly all of East Jerusalem.

The emergency meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo was requested by the Palestinians, who responded angrily to the US deal.

Mr Abbas — who previously said "a thousand noes" to the proposal — said he told Israel and the US that "there will be no relations with them, including the security ties" following the deal that Palestinians say heavily favours Israel.

There was no immediate comment from US or Israeli officials on Mr Abbas' statement.

The Palestinian leader said he refused to take US President Donald Trump's phone calls and messages "because I know that he would use that to say he consulted us".

"I will never accept this solution," Mr Abbas said.

Donald Trump unveils his vision for the Middle East, promising an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

He said the Palestinians remain committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state with its capital in East Jerusalem.

The Arab League's head, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, said the proposal revealed a "sharp turn" in the long-standing US foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"This turn does not help achieve peace and a just solution," he declared.

The Arab League's final communique described the deal as "a new setback for the three-decade peace efforts".

It said Arab foreign ministers "reject the US, Israeli deal of the century because it did not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people."

Trump's plan for peace

US President Donald Trump unveiled the long-awaited proposal this week in Washington.

It would allow Israel to annex all its West Bank settlements — which the Palestinians and most of the international community view as illegal — as well as the Jordan Valley, which accounts for roughly a fourth of the West Bank.

In return, the Palestinians would be granted statehood in Gaza, scattered chunks of the West Bank and some neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem, all linked together by a new network of roads, bridges and tunnels.

The view of the old city of Jerusalem from the Mount Olive.
The Old City of Jerusalem is home to Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites.(ABC News: Erwin Renaldi)

Israel would control the state's borders and airspace and maintain overall security authority.

Critics of the plan say this would rob Palestinian statehood of any meaning.

The plan would abolish the right of return for Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war and their descendants, a key Palestinian demand.

The entire agreement would be contingent on Gaza's Hamas rulers and other armed groups disarming, something they have always adamantly rejected.

Ambivalent response from Arab leaders

Ambassadors from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman attended the Tuesday unveiling in Washington, in a tacit sign of support for the US initiative.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Arab states that are close US allies, said they appreciated Mr Trump's efforts and called for renewed negotiations without commenting on the plan's content.

In a statement, Egypt urged Israelis and Palestinians to "carefully study" the plan.

It said it favours a solution that restores all the "legitimate rights" of the Palestinian people through establishing an "independent and sovereign state on the occupied Palestinian territories".

Palestinian gunmen and civilians burn the U.S. and the Israeli flags.
Palestinian gunmen burn US and Israeli flags at a refugee camp in Lebanon in protest of Trump's plan.(AP: Mohammed Zaatari)

The Egyptian statement did not mention the long-held Arab demand of east Jerusalem as a capital to the future Palestinian state, as Cairo usually has its statements related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Jordan, meanwhile, warned against any Israeli "annexation of Palestinian lands" and reaffirmed its commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines, which would include all the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel.