African leaders reject Trump peace plan, back Palestinians

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — African leaders condemn US President Donald Trump’s Israel-Palestinian peace plan as illegitimate, taking advantage of an African Union summit to voice solidarity with “the Palestinian cause.”

AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat tells assembled heads of state that the plan unveiled in late January represented the “umpteenth violation of multiple United Nations and African Union resolutions.”

He says that it was prepared without international consultation and that it “trampled on the rights of the Palestinian people,” a line that draws applause in the main hall at AU headquarters.

Trump’s long-delayed peace proposals were immediately rejected by the Palestinians, who have boycotted his administration over its pro-Israel stance.

The outgoing AU chair, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, says in his remarks today that “the Palestinian cause will always be in the hearts and minds of the people of Africa.”

His successor, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, compares Trump’s proposals to regulations in place during his country’s apartheid period.

“As I listened to it and as I read everything that’s written about it, it brought to mind the horrible history that we in South Africa have gone through,” he says.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who regularly attends AU summits, did not travel to Ethiopia this year.

Abbas is represented by PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who reiterates Palestinian leaders’ position that the Trump plan “has no legitimacy whatsoever.”

— AFP