Jordan's King rejects Trump's peace plan

Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Sunday publicly spoke for the first time about the US administration’s so-called “Deal of the Century”, which will be unveiled this week.

"Our position is perfectly well-known. We will not agree to proposals that come at our expense," he said, according to Kan 11 News.

"Our position on the Palestinian cause is clear, and the word 'no' is very clear to everyone," stressed the King.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has also rejected the Trump peace plan, with chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat threatening on Sunday that the PA could withdraw from parts of the Oslo Accords if the Trump administration's plan is unveiled.

Erekat told AFP that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reserved the right "to withdraw from the interim agreement", the concrete part of the Oslo deal, if Trump unveils his plan.

The Trump initiative will turn Israel's "temporary occupation (of Palestinian territory) into a permanent occupation", Erekat claimed.

At the same time, reported Kan 11 News, officials in the Gulf states say in close conversations with Western diplomats that they do not reject Trump's peace plan even though it does not include a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders.

A senior official quoted in the report said that it is time to hear new ideas and not dismiss things outright. Officials from these Arab countries reportedly expressed frustration during these closed conversations over the Palestinian Arabs’ refusal to enter negotiations.

Since a majority of Jordanians - which was established in 1947 on 77% of the British Mandate of Palestine - are Palestinian Arabs (some 70%), some have suggested the country should rightfully serve as a Palestinian state.

The Hashemite Kingdom, however, has rejected these calls. In 2014, King Abdullah told the Jordanian parliament that “Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine and nothing but that, not in the past or the future.”