Parliament condemns Trump's peace plan

ANKARA

Turkey’s parliament has condemned the U.S. peace plan for the Middle East, saying it is against U.N. resolutions and a two-state solution framework.

All five political parties of parliament signed a joint declaration on Jan. 29, condemning the peace plan while vowing to “stand by” Palestinians.

“This plan aims to legitimize Israel’s decades-long occupation into Palestine, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to impose this on Palestinians. What [they] want to do is to turn the occupation into annexation,” the joint declaration read.

The said peace plan, which “ignores a two-state solution and violated international law especially U.N. resolutions, has little chance to have acceptance by the international community, the declaration added.

Parliament also said that a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict can only last with the borders of 1967, an independent and sovereign Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

“Turkey will never support any initiative which does not pay regards to the fundamental rights of the Palestinian public and which is not accepted by the State of Palestine or its people,” the statement said.

The Middle East peace plan announced by President Donald Trump on Jan. 28 supports the Israeli position on nearly all of the most contentious issues in the decades-old conflict.

Where previous presidents tried to cajole Israel and the Palestinians into compromising on thorny issues like the borders of a future Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of refugees, Trump’s Middle East team largely adopted the Israeli position.