Johnson Supports Trump's Peace Plan For Offering Two-State Solution, Urges Abbas To Engage

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday put his support behind US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, praising it for offering a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict in the region, and calling on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to enter negotiations

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2020) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday put his support behind US President Donald Trump's middle East peace plan at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, praising it for offering a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict in the region, and calling on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to enter negotiations.

"Let's be clear, this is a problem that has bedeviled the world for decades, and the Middle East, of course, in particular. No peace plan is perfect, but this has the merit of a two-state solution. It is a two-state solution. It would ensure that Jerusalem is both the capital of Israel and of the Palestinian people," Johnson said in response to a question raised by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The head of the opposition asked the prime minister whether he would stand for an internationally-backed peace agreement.

Johnson also urged Corbyn to convince Abbas to come to the negotiating table, and not to dismiss Trump's so-called deal of the century outright.

"I urge him [Jeremy Corbyn], rather than being so characteristically negative to reach out to his friends, my friends, our friends in the Palestinian authority, to Mahmoud Abbas for whom I have the highest respect and urge him for once to engage with this initiative - to get talking rather than to leave a political vacuum," Johnson stated.

On Tuesday, after Trump's deal was revealed to the public, Abbas stated that the Palestinian people would throw the peace deal in the garbage can of history, indicating his derision of the peace plan.