President Donald Trump’s long-awaited Middle East peace plan calls for a state of Palestine with a capital in East Jerusalem, he said during an event Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, CNBC reported.
The plan calls for the recognition of Israeli settlements in the West Bank in exchange for a four-year freeze on new settlement activity. It will double the territory under the control of the Palestinians, Trump said.
The President also said that the U.S. will “proudly” open an embassy in the new Palestinian capital. He claimed that the plan would lead to $50 billion in new commercial investment in Palestine and that “if executed well” it could create 1 million new Palestinian jobs.
The proposal favors Israel and was immediately rejected by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“After the nonsense that we heard today, we say a thousand no’s to the Deal of The Century,” Abbas said, according to the Associated Press.
Palestinians have cited Trump policies such as moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem as evidence of pro-Israel bias that prevents the administration from being a neutral party in negotiations, CNBC adds.
Dampening the plan’s chances further, the foreign minister of Jordan, Israel’s neighbor to the east, on Tuesday rejected the proposed recognition of Israeli settlements.
Trump had suggested during the news conference that Jordan’s King Abdullah II would play a key role in aspects of the peace plan related to maintaining Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, but that now appears unlikely.
Despite the deal’s long odds of success, Trump suggested that the peace plan marked a historic step forward.
“This is an unprecedented and highly significant development,” Trump said Tuesday during the news conference with Netanyahu. “Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for having the courage to take this big step forward.”
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