ENVOYS BUCK ISRAEL ANNEXATION PLANS

JERICHO: International diplomats have rejected an Israeli plan to annex parts of the West Bank, saying it undermines the vision of a two-state solutionN

The remarks were made during a mass rally that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement organized in the West Bank town of Jericho, to reject the Israeli plan, with the participation of diplomats from 48 countries.

Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations peace envoy to the Middle East, said at the rally that “the Israeli annexation plan contradicts international law and will undermine the dream of peace and establishing a Palestinian stateN”

He called on the international community “to move as quickly as possible and exert every possible effort to rescue the peace process through peace talks that end with the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

“Over the past 25 years, the international community worked on establishing a Palestinian state that late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had put as his basis,” said Mladenov.

He also called for unity among the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Sven Kuhn Von Burgdsroff, the representative of the European Union (EU) in Palestine, renewed the EU’s rejection of the Israeli annexation planN

“The EU doesn’t recognize any Israeli sovereignty on the Palestinian Territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem,” he stressed.

He added that “any annexation process or any unilateral steps will create irreparable consequences, and directly undermine the two-state solution based on negotiationsN”

“The Union closely monitors the consequences of these plans, and confirms that in the case of any annexation, the relations between the EU and Israel will be affected,” he said.

Burgdsroff called on

Israel to abide by international law and work immediately on ending all settlement activities in the occupied territories and other violationsN

Russian Ambassador to the State of Palestine Gocha Buachidze said the Israeli annexation plan “will undermine the peace process and implementing it will block the possibilities of establishing an independent Palestinian stateN”

“The situation needs immediate resumption of the negotiations under the mandate of the United Nations (UN) to reach a comprehensive solution based on the UN resolutions and the 2002 Arab peace initiative,” said Buachidze.

difference among most Republicans behind Trump.