U.S. launches Mideast peace plan amid skepticism. More here:
MANAMA - The Trump administration launched a $50 billion economic formula for Israeli-Palestinian peace on Tuesday, saying an investment program for the Palestinians was a precondition for ending the decades-old conflict.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was scathing about its prospects:The political details of the peace plan, almost two years in the making, remain secret. Neither the Israeli nor Palestinian governments attended the curtain-raising event while several Arab states stayed away or sent deputy ministers.
Kushner told Al Jazeera TV on Monday that the Trump plan would not follow a Saudi-led Arab initiative that has been the Arab consensus on the outline of a settlement since 2002. The Saudi-backed initiative calls for a Palestinian state with borders that predate Israel’s capture of territory in the 1967 Middle East war, as well as a capital in East Jerusalem and refugees’ right of return - all rejected by Israel.
In Gaza, businesses closed doors in a general strike called by the ruling Islamist Hamas group and other factions.An Iranian official called Kushner’s plan “shameful” and “doomed to failure”. Trump on Monday imposed sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader and other officials after Iran downed a U.S. drone following attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf.
Emirati billionaire Mohamed Alabbar said Arabs like him were ready to invest. “This is a very sensible kind of dream and one would’ve hoped the beneficiaries would’ve been here,” he said.Haim Taib, Israeli president of British-based Mitrelli, an infrastructure development firm, said the plan seemed “doable” but it was unclear how momentum would be maintained beyond the event.
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