US: Arab Peace Initiative is no longer necessary

US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft told the UN Security Council on Monday that the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 “is no longer needed”, Al-Watan Voice reported.

Kraft said: “[US President Donald] Trump’s experience has led to peace, our vision is possible, and we have done a lot of work to present the peace plan and it is full of details.”

She added: “The Arab initiative of 2002 is no longer needed. The deal of the century opened new horizons for the Palestinians.”

“We encourage our regional partners and the members of this body to thoughtfully consider the United States Vision for Peace and to play a constructive role in encouraging direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians on its basis.”

The senior US official argued: “We cannot keep doing what we have been doing and expect things to change. We are failing the Israeli and Palestinian people.”

Following the recent signing of peace deals between the UAE and Bahrain and Israel, Saudi Arabia repeated that the Arab Peace Initiative is a good basis for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

READ: Normalisation with Israel will trigger an arms race in the Middle East

Meanwhile, the UN regarded the continuous Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, which escalated following the announcement of the peace deals between the Arabs and Israel, as hindering an prospects for peace.

“While the location of these units is particularly worrying, I reiterate that all settlements are illegal under international law and remain a substantial obstacle to peace,” Nickolay Mladenov, UN special coordinator for the Middle East Peace process, told the UN Security Council from Jerusalem.