Trump’s Plan for Peace: ‘Take it or Leave it’

US President Donald Trump. AFP file photo
US President Donald Trump. AFP file photo
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Trump’s Plan for Peace: ‘Take it or Leave it’

US President Donald Trump. AFP file photo
US President Donald Trump. AFP file photo

US President Donald Trump plans to propose a comprehensive political plan to the Palestinian-Israeli negotiation table, uncovered a high-ranking US official engaged in talks with the Israelis.

“Parties to the conflict in the Middle East will be compelled to live with this new proposal,” the official said on Tuesday.

Speaking on conditions of anonymity, he said contrary to reports published in Israel this week, this plan is considered as “take it or leave it.”

The official also said that Washington plans to present Trump’s proposal to the Israelis and the Palestinians for discussion by December as the president does not wish to enter into long negotiations with the two sides, similar to what happened with his predecessor Barack Obama.

“Trump does not have time to play. This is his plan, and this is what will be,” the official said, adding that the new proposal aims to prevent negotiators to sit for hours in closed rooms, only to exchange accusations.

The official said that in the absence of such option, there would be a bigger possibility to find out which party will be responsible for the failure of the peace operation.

“Israel should understand that it cannot hope for a negotiation team better than three Jewish men with Kippahs on their heads,” he said, alluding to US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and the two envoys Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner.

Diplomatic sources in Tel Aviv, who were informed about Trump’s plan, said that Washington’s new proposal is expected to produce a big earthquake in the political arena in Israel.

“If there is anything that can threaten the ruling coalition today, it is surely the expected Trump plan,” he said.

The official said that lately, Trump has taken several dramatic decisions in the benefit of Israel.

“The US president did not take those decisions by chance, but he rather sent a message to the Israeli public and the Netanyahu coalition that Washington would not allow anyone to mess with Israel’s interests. But, on the other hand, Trump wants to achieve a historic agreement,” the official added.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.