LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) – Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Washington’s long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan was doomed to fail and that the Palestinian resistance movement would respond firmly to those who proposed such deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump has touted the plan as the “deal of the century” but Palestinian officials have already spurned it, believing it will be heavily biased in favour of Israel.
Trump’s team, headed by his Middle East adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, is set to unveil the plan at an international investment conference in Bahrain in late June.
The Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by Tasnim news agency that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was “withdrawal of Zionists from the occupied lands, and return of Palestinian refugees to hold free elections”.
[aesop_image img=”https://kayhanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2011-02-11T120000Z_119338078_GM1E72B1GB001_RTRMADP_3_IRAN.jpg” panorama=”off” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”FILE PHOTO: A man holds a picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei while walking on representations of the U.S. and Israeli flags during a demonstration. REUTERS ” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]
Any other plan would fail, the statement said, adding that “fighters in the Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine will firmly respond to those who proposed the deal of the century.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was also cited by state television as saying the Trump plan would fail.
Opposition to Israel is a touchstone of belief for Shi’ite-led Iran. It backs Palestinian and Lebanese Islamist militant groups opposed to peace with Israel, which Tehran refuses to recognise.
[aesop_image img=”https://kayhanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2014-05-25T120000Z_1876737626_GM1EA5Q06NU01_RTRMADP_3_LEBANON-NASRALLAH.jpg” panorama=”off” credit=”REUTERS/Ali Hashisho ” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”FILE PHOTO: A poster of (R-L) Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, former Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi and Lebanese resistance leader and cleric Sheikh Ragheb Harb, is seen in between Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Hezbollah flags during Resistance and Liberation Day celebrations in Bint Jbeil May 25, 2014. The event commemorates the 14th anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon. ” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]
President Hassan Rouhani said in remarks carried by state television on Wednesday that the deal of the century “would in reality be a bankruptcy of the century for those who proposed it.”
Israel, the United States and its chief Sunni Arab ally Saudi Arabia accuse Iran of fomenting tension in the Middle East and of sponsoring terrorism. This is denied by Tehran.
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin Editing by Frances Kerry and John Stonestreet)
