Hamas chief shoots down Trump's 'Deal of the Century'

The head of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, announced on Saturday that his movement would reject the Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century" plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

At the "United Against the Deal of the Century" conference which brought together Palestinian factions in Gaza, Haniyeh said that Palestinians should reject the deal “regardless of threats and temptations.”

He added that the “Deal of the Century” was already being implemented both on the Palestinian and regional levels and that it represented “a serious attempt to redraw the political geography of the region”.

Haniyeh cited “attempts to liquidate the refugee issue by liquidating the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), giving the Golan Heights to the occupier [i.e. Israel], annexation of settlements, and work to politically separate the West Bank and Gaza” as evidence of this.

Haniyeh added that the US’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was a “new and dangerous” attack on previously agreed conventions of the peace process.

The details of the “Deal of the Century” which the Trump administration is proposing remain secret. President Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner has stated that they will not be revealed until after Ramadan, the Islamic holy month which this year ends in early June.

However, the Trump administration’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, its cutting of funding to the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s announcement that Israel will annex settlements in the West Bank, have given indications that the deal will be heavily biased towards Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also chairman of the Fatah movement, has launched a campaign to confront the plan.

Haniyeh said that Hamas was willing to meet urgently with Fatah to bring about reconciliation. Hamas and Fatah have been in dispute since 2007, when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip following armed conflict with Fatah.

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