US envoy dismisses Israeli media report on peace plan

JERUSALEM

U.S. Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt on Wednesday night dismissed a report by Israel’s Channel 13 on the so-called “Deal of the Century”, a backchannel U.S. Mideast peace plan details of which have yet to be made public.

Greenblatt dismissed the report as “inaccurate”, saying the U.S. plan would offer the Palestinians a state on 90 percent of the West Bank -- occupied by Israel since 1967 -- with a capital in part of East Jerusalem.

“Over the coming period, unnamed sources will peddle narratives to the media… based on motivations that are far from pure,” Greenblatt said in a statement.

“Peddling false, distorted or biased stories to the media is irresponsible and harmful to the [peacemaking] process,” he added.

On Wednesday, Channel 13 quoted a “senior American official” as saying the plan would allow Israel to maintain sovereignty over West Jerusalem.

The plan, the same source went on to allege, would also leave Israel in control of Jerusalem’s Old City district, Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Mount of Olives -- all of which are located in occupied East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Authority, for its part, has repeatedly said that any peace plan that does not include a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders -- with East Jerusalem as its capital -- would be “doomed to failure”.

In a statement, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that “any projects aimed at circumventing the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people for freedom and independence will not succeed”.