Johnson praises Trump’s controversial peace plan

V BORIS JOHNSON has said Donald Trump’s vision for Middle East peace “has the merit of a two-state solution” and would “ensure Jerusalem is both the capital of Israel and the Palestinian people”.

Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, the Prime Minister also said to opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn: “I would urge him rather than being so characteristically negative to reach out to his friend, my friend, our friends in the Palestinian authority, to Mahmoud Abbas — for whom I have the highest respect — and urge him for once to engage, to get talking rather than to leave a political vacuum.”

The US president had unveiled his long-awaited proposals alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House, insisting they offered a “win-win” opportunity for both Israel and the Palestinians.

A Downing Street spokesman confirmed Mr Johnson and Mr Trump had discussed the proposal for peace on Tuesday which could prove “a positive step forwards”.

The outgoing Labour leader hit back, saying Mr Trump’s plan “will not bring any move towards peace, has no support from any Palestinian anywhere in the world”.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urged the Palestinians to give the plans

“fair consideration and explore whether they might prove a first step on the road back to negotiations”.

Mr Raab added: “Only the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories can determine whether these proposals can meet the needs and aspirations of the people they represent.”

Tony Blair, the former prime minister and ex-Middle East peace envoy, appeared to call for the Palestinians and Arab governments to sit down and negotiate over the deal.

“The Palestinians do not need to signal acceptance of the plan but to engage with the American government and demand the improvements to it they wish to see,” he said.

“The risk of non-engagement … is that the possibility of realising the two-state solution becomes ever more distant.”

In a statement, the Board of Deputies said: “We would ask the two sides to find ways around their differences and work towards a future that allows for the flourishing of both peoples.”

New Israel Fund chief executive Adam Ognall said: “The Trump Administration is offering Israeli officials and the radical settler right a free pass to march… toward a future of unending injustice and inequality. This plan threatens to make the occupation permanent. If it becomes reality, there will be no two-state solution.”

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