UN envoy: Trump peace plan ‘completed,’ to be unveiled in early 2019

Danny Danon doesn’t know if US proposal based on two-state solution, says timing ideal as it will likely be before Israeli elections

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon speaks to the media prior to a United Nations Security Council meeting on the Middle East on May 11, 2017. (Mark Garten/UN Photo)
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon speaks to the media prior to a United Nations Security Council meeting on the Middle East on May 11, 2017. (Mark Garten/UN Photo)

UNITED NATIONS — US President Donald Trump’s administration has told Israel that it will present its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan early next year, Israel’s envoy to the United Nations said Tuesday.

Ambassador Danny Danon told journalists that the peace plan was “completed” and that the administration had discussed timing with Israel to unveil the proposals.

“As far as we know, they speak with us about beginning of ’19, which is coming soon,” Danon said. “We don’t know the details of the plan but we know that it’s completed.”

The ambassador said early next year was considered the best timing because it will be several months before expected elections in Israel.

A rollout of the peace plan in early 2019 will allow Trump to “present it without interfering in our political debate in Israel,” he said.

US President Donald Trump (right) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters, on September 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Israel will come to the negotiating table to discuss the plan, Danon said, but the Palestinians will try to block it even as the United States tries to bring other key countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan on board.

The Palestinians have severed ties with the Trump administration after his December decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and declare the city Israel’s capital.

The US administration has cut more than $500 million in Palestinian aid since the start of the Palestinian boycott.

The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. International consensus has been that Jerusalem’s status must be negotiated between the two sides.

Trump said in September that he planned to unveil the peace plan by the end of the year, and has suggested that the proposals could provide for the creation of a Palestinian state.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, center, Jared Kushner, left, and Jason Greenblatt, listen as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a Security Council meeting on the situation in Palestine on February 20, 2018, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Danon said he did not know if the two-state solution was included in the US plan.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and lawyer Jason Greenblatt, who have led efforts to draft the plan, traveled to the region several times for talks on the proposals.

Greenblatt said in an October interview with The Times of Israel that the plan would “be heavily focused on Israeli security needs” while remaining “fair to the Palestinians.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this article.

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