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Iraq
US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take part in an announcement of Trump's Middle East peace plan in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on January 28, 2020. Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s highest religious authority and other leaders on Tuesday condemned US President Trump’s peace plan for resolution of the Palestinian question, calling on Muslims to unite for the defense of Palestinian rights.
Alongside embattled Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump announced his controversial, long-awaited peace plan for the Israel-Palestine conflict on Tuesday.
“This decision is both denounced and condemned, and it abuses the feelings of hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims,” a statement from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s office quoted him as saying.
“However, it won’t change the truth that Jerusalem is occupied land that will have to return to the sovereignty of its Palestinian owners no matter how long it takes, and the efforts of the Ummah [Muslim nations] need to be enjoined and united to this end,” the statement added.
Palestinians has boycott the deal since conception, accusing the Trump administration of not being a neutral third party. The deal, termed “Peace to Prosperity”, is based on a two-state solution.
“The plot of the Deal of the Century won't pass. We say 1000 'no's to the slap of the century. Jerusalem is not for sale,” President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The plan promises one million job opportunities for Palestinians, about $50 billion in investment, and the development of roads, tunnel networks, and port ownerships. It also recognizes Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, which contains the al-Aqsa mosque - Islam’s second holiest site.
Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday posted verses of the Quran describing the symbolic importance of Jerusalem to Muslims, ending his post with “Jerusalem is for all religions, and Palestine is for the free”.
Iraq’s deputy parliament speaker, Hassan al-Kaabi, a member of Sadr’s movement, on Tuesday expressed his “deepest regret” in Arab envoys taking part in the plan’s announcement ceremony, calling on Arab leaders, Muslims, the Arab League, and the Islamic Cooperation Organization “to take a firm, united stance regarding this deal and rejecting it except for full Palestinian independence and for the state be established with honorable Jerusalem being its capital.”
Envoys from the Arab states of Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates were in ceremony attendance. Amid rivalry with Iran and its proxies in the region, Sunni Arab states have backed away from a hardline rejection of the Israeli state. Iraq, however, has maintained its policy of full Palestinian independence, rejecting ties with the state of Israel.
“Jerusalem has been, remains, and will remain our human, Islamic and Arabic cause, and it cannot be confiscated, monopolized or sold in markets of compromises, deals, or electoral auctions under whatsoever pretext,” Ammar al-Hakim, member of a prominent Shiite religious family and head of the Hikmah Front said in a Tuesday statement.
Hakeem took aim at those “who were deluded and “conspired” against the Palestinian cause, slamming the deal as “ominous”, calling on Islamic and Arabic organizations to undertake activities to “condemn this dangerous conspiracy against the security and stability of the world”.
Alongside embattled Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump announced his controversial, long-awaited peace plan for the Israel-Palestine conflict on Tuesday.
“This decision is both denounced and condemned, and it abuses the feelings of hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims,” a statement from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s office quoted him as saying.
“However, it won’t change the truth that Jerusalem is occupied land that will have to return to the sovereignty of its Palestinian owners no matter how long it takes, and the efforts of the Ummah [Muslim nations] need to be enjoined and united to this end,” the statement added.
Palestinians has boycott the deal since conception, accusing the Trump administration of not being a neutral third party. The deal, termed “Peace to Prosperity”, is based on a two-state solution.
“The plot of the Deal of the Century won't pass. We say 1000 'no's to the slap of the century. Jerusalem is not for sale,” President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The plan promises one million job opportunities for Palestinians, about $50 billion in investment, and the development of roads, tunnel networks, and port ownerships. It also recognizes Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, which contains the al-Aqsa mosque - Islam’s second holiest site.
Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday posted verses of the Quran describing the symbolic importance of Jerusalem to Muslims, ending his post with “Jerusalem is for all religions, and Palestine is for the free”.
Iraq’s deputy parliament speaker, Hassan al-Kaabi, a member of Sadr’s movement, on Tuesday expressed his “deepest regret” in Arab envoys taking part in the plan’s announcement ceremony, calling on Arab leaders, Muslims, the Arab League, and the Islamic Cooperation Organization “to take a firm, united stance regarding this deal and rejecting it except for full Palestinian independence and for the state be established with honorable Jerusalem being its capital.”
Envoys from the Arab states of Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates were in ceremony attendance. Amid rivalry with Iran and its proxies in the region, Sunni Arab states have backed away from a hardline rejection of the Israeli state. Iraq, however, has maintained its policy of full Palestinian independence, rejecting ties with the state of Israel.
“Jerusalem has been, remains, and will remain our human, Islamic and Arabic cause, and it cannot be confiscated, monopolized or sold in markets of compromises, deals, or electoral auctions under whatsoever pretext,” Ammar al-Hakim, member of a prominent Shiite religious family and head of the Hikmah Front said in a Tuesday statement.
Hakeem took aim at those “who were deluded and “conspired” against the Palestinian cause, slamming the deal as “ominous”, calling on Islamic and Arabic organizations to undertake activities to “condemn this dangerous conspiracy against the security and stability of the world”.
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