Abbas warns UN that Trump plan 'will not last'

UNITED NATIONS, United States — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday told the UN Security Council that the world should reject President Donald Trump's Middle East plan, calling it an outside imposition that cannot bring lasting peace.

Brandishing a large map of Israel and Palestine as laid out by Trump's long-awaited January 28 announcement, Abbas called it a "Swiss cheese" deal that would limit Palestinian sovereignty.

"I would like to say to Mr. Donald Trump that his plan cannot achieve peace and security as it cancels international legitimacy," Abbas told the Security Council.

"It cancels all the rights of the Palestinians. This does not meet the aspirations of a two-state solution," he said.

"If you impose peace it will not last, it cannot last," he said, asking: "What gives you the right to annex these lands?"

Abbas said that peace with Israel remained "achievable" and said: "I have come to build a just partnership."

"This deal is not an international partnership. This proposal was from one state, supported by another state to be imposed."

The Palestinians have sought to rally international support against the plan, which Trump unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has since moved forward on plans to annex vast parts of the West Bank.

While the Palestinians have refused to deal with Trump, seeing him as biased, Abbas said his first encounters with the president were positive.

Trump, whose evangelical Christian base is strongly supportive of Israel, has taken a series of landmark steps such as recognising occupied  Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ending assistance to the UN body that helps Palestinian refugees.

“I do not know who gave him this advice. The President Trump I met was not like that,” Abbas said.

Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated on Tuesday against the US peace plan. An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Palestinians gathered in central Ramallah, home of the Palestinian government, for a demonstration led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, AFP correspondents said.

A few hundred demonstrators later protested near an Israeli military checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, where clashes broke out between protesters and Israeli soldiers firing tear gas.

Twelve Palestinians were injured, including two shot by rubber bullets, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.