‘Deal of the Century’ Exposes US Unreliability

EghtesadOnline: The Iranian top diplomat said the American plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace is a wakeup call for Muslims that the United States is not to be trusted as a mediator.

News ID: ۷۴۹۵۷۲

01 February 2020

"We Muslims need to wake up: The US never was—and can never be—anything resembling an honest broker," Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, a day after US President Donald Trump announced the plan at a White House event, Financial Tribune reported.

In an earlier tweet, he had described the so-called peace plan "a nightmare for the region and the world", hoping it would be "a wakeup call for all the Muslims who have been barking up the wrong tree".

The plan, dubbed "Vision for Peace" and called by Trump as "Deal of the Century", purportedly aims to end decades of conflict between Israel and Palestine, but is overwhelmingly in favor of the Israeli side as evidenced by the absence of Palestinians from the announcement.

The lengthy document contains conceptual maps showing how Israel and a future Palestinian state could look if Palestinians agreed to sign up to the plan, which was endorsed at the White House by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinian leaders have categorically rejected the proposals.

Zarif compared the proposed land divisions to Bantustan territories set aside for black residents in South Africa before the apartheid system was overthrown, thanks to the efforts of luminaries such as Nelson Mandela.

"Could Mandela ever have imagined re-emergence of BANTUSTANS, decades after liberation of South Africa?" he tweeted, with maps of Bantustan and Palestinian proposed territories attached.

He said this Vision for Peace looks more like "Highway to Hell".

Iran’s Democratic Solution

Trump’s plan says Beit-ul-Moqaddas (Jerusalem) should remain Israel's undivided, sovereign capital and the future Palestinian state will have its capital in Abu Dis, a village in the east of the city.

Palestinians say they reject any proposal that does not envision a Palestinian capital in all of East Beit-ul-Moqaddas.

Zarif had said before the unveiling of the plan that it was "delusional" and would be "dead on arrival", saying it would be better to replace it with Iran's democratic solution proposed by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, which involves "a referendum whereby ALL Palestinians—Muslim, Jew or Christian—decide their future."

President Hassan Rouhani also referred to the proposed deal as "The Most Despicable Plan of the Century" in a tweet, calling for an end to such "foolish attempts".

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi also censured the proposal, calling it "treason of the century".

"The Zionist regime is an occupying regime and the only solution to solve the Palestinian crisis is a referendum among all main residents of the Palestinian land and such vicious plans are doomed to failure," Mousavi said on Tuesday, Press TV reported.

Mousavi called on all nations and governments in the region and across the world to counter Trump's disgraceful scheme.