Tehran, IRNA – French lawyer and essayist André Chamy has said a controversial plan by U.S. President Donald Trump to forcibly displace Palestinians out of Gaza and resettle them in other countries would create a crisis in the Middle East.
Chamy made the comment in an exclusive interview with IRNA, which was published on Saturday. The interview was conducted as global anger boils over the plan which Trump announced earlier in February as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.
Unlike Trump’s declared goal of improving the living conditions of Palestinians and regional stability, his plan is in line with the long-standing U.S. policies for redrawing the Middle East map based on its strategic interests, the French lawyer said.
Support for the plans that benefit Israel would help the United States increase its influence as well, while they put aside the Palestinians’ demands, Chamy added.
He also said that many observers have already described Trump’s plan as ethnic cleansing or genocide against the Palestinian people. That's because the forced displacement of people from their homeland is a blatant violation of international law, Chamy added.
The United States’ similar policies in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past years, which were adopted under the pretext of fighting terrorism and promoting democracy, caused massive humanitarian consequences and intensified religious and ethnic tensions, he noted.
The French lawyer also said that more than half of the Americans are against Trump's plan. Despite that, U.S. politicians usually support Tel Aviv's positions due to Washington’s strategic relations with Tel Aviv, he added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Chamy described some Arab states’ support for Trump’s plan as betrayal to the Palestinian cause.
He reiterated that the Palestinian issue requires a balanced and sustainable approach to be resolved, saying the formation of a unified democratic state that reserves equal rights for all historical Palestinian residents would be the only logical solution.
Trump announced his plan on February 4 and has ever since remained defiant in the face of global outrage at his proposal. He has even doubled down on the controversial proposal, saying that the U.S. would take over Gaza after the war ends there, and that the Palestinians who leave the enclave would not have the right to return.
“Would the Palestinians have the right to return?” asked Fox News' Bret Baier who sat down with Trump to discuss his Gaza plan on February 10. “No, they wouldn’t”, the U.S. president replied, claiming that the Palestinians are going to “have much better housing.”
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