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News > Palestine

African Union Rejects Trump's Middle East Peace Plan

  • A man waves the Palestinian flag near the Israeli border fence in Gaza.

    A man waves the Palestinian flag near the Israeli border fence in Gaza. | Photo: Reuters

Published 9 February 2020
Opinion

The president of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said that the plan was a "violation of multiple resolutions of the UN and the AU."

The African Union on Sunday condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Middle East, calling the so-called "deal of the century" an 'illegitimate' proposal. 

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The president of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, told the assembled heads of state that the plan published at the end of January represented a "violation of multiple resolutions of the United Nations and the African Union."

Mahamat said Trump's peace plan was prepared by himself without international consultation and that he "trampled on the rights of the Palestinian people," a line that caused an uproar in the main hall of the headquarters of the African Union.

He expressed his great concern about this new plan presented last week in Washington, as it is primarily  favorable to Israel's interests.

Mahamat reiterated "the solidarity of the A.U. with the Palestinian people in their legitimate search for an independent and sovereign state with East Jerusalem as capital."

The leaders held this weekend the XXXIII Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU), under the slogan "silencing weapons", at a time when the continent has witnessed new crises and conflicts.

Trump's long-delayed peace proposal was immediately rejected by the Palestinians, who have largely boycotted his administration since he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017.

The project includes giving Israel a green light to annex settlements in Judea and Samaria, most of the territories that Palestinians consider their future state.

The outgoing president of the African Union, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said in his Sunday speech that "the Palestinian cause will always be in the hearts and minds of the peoples of Africa."

His successor, the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, compared Trump's proposals with the regulations in force during his country's apartheid period.

"Listening to it and reading everything that has been written about it, it reminded me of the horrible story we have lived in South Africa," he said.

Ramaphosa has pledged that the organization will focus on the situation in Libya during his presidency of the A.U. and pay special attention to South Sudan.

In another order, the leaders focused on reinforcing their commitments around ending the crises and armed conflicts in the region, after the number of conflagrations in Africa between 2005 and 2018 has increased.

On the first day of the summit, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, also described the work of the UN with the African Union as a "capital-important" collaboration and expressed his full support for the continental peace initiative.

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