Senate president denounces ‘new Sykes-Picot’ plan

AMMAN — Jordan has always been devoted to serving just Arab causes, defending the rights of Arabs to unity, social justice and wellbeing, Senate President Faisal Fayez said on Saturday. 

Inaugurating the second round of meetings of the Arab Lawyers Union’s permanent office, hosted by the Jordan Bar Association (JBA) in Amman over three days, under the motto “united to drop the deal of the century", Fayez said that the meeting is being held at a time when the Arab nation faces big challenges. 

Speaking of the “deal of the century”, the plan proposed by the Trump administration to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Fayez said that all should be aware that Jordan, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah, will never give up its unaltered national stances, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In this regard, he said that Jordan will never be an alternative country for Palestinians.

The Kingdom will never relinquish its Hashemite Custodianship over Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and will not abandon the rights of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees, he stressed.

The Arab nation is experiencing a new Sykes-Picot Agreement with fears of re-dividing the Arab countries, some of which have become arenas for regional and international conflict, where world powers fight for their own interests on Arab lands, the president said. 

JBA President Mazen Irshidat said that the union, which was established in 1944, was founded for political reasons in the first place, including for purposes related to standing up to occupation forces, liberating Palestine and fighting normalisation. 

Head of the union and president of the Egyptian Lawyers Association Sameh Ashour said those who speak about two states in Palestine and an east and west Jerusalem should reconsider their plans, noting that wars and crises in some Arab countries are just part of the “deal of the century".