Saeb Erekat
Saeb ErekatReuters

Senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official Saeb Erekat on Wednesday blasted US President Donald Trump's “Deal of the Century”, calling it "a plan of Netanyahu and the council of the settlers."

Speaking in an interview with Oded Ben Ami on Channel 12 News, Erekat claimed, "What you heard last night from Trump is what I heard from Netanyahu and his negotiating team in 2011-2012.”

"I can assure you that the US team did not write a single word or comma in this plan. I have the protocols and I am willing to reveal to you what we were offered. This is the plan of Netanyahu and the council of the settlers. What opportunity is this? It's a sad day for Israelis and Palestinians," he continued.

"We were witnesses to the fact that the US and Israel turned their backs on a signed agreement, the rule of law, the establishment of peace, a solution of problems by nonviolent means. What is missing from the plan presented last night is peace and the prospect of peace. Dictating reality is one thing and negotiation is another,” charged Erekat.

"President Abbas and I met with Trump and his team 37 times in 2017. That is the truth. We did not miss an opportunity. Nobody benefits more from signing a peace agreement with Israel, two states along the 1967 borders with land swaps, more than the Palestinians."

"We are defiant? This is a blame game and a search for guilty parties," he continued. "Our mission at the moment is to avoid the worst. The Palestinians and Israelis cannot live by the sword. You have a Prime Minister with three indictments, we have a deposed president, we know the internal politics. I don't want to stick my nose into your internal affairs, but all I do is I say - the Palestinians and Israelis deserve more," said Erekat.

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas immediately rejected Trump’s peace plan after it was presented on Tuesday and said it would be relegated to the "dustbin of history."

The peace plan Abbas rejected called for the creation of a Palestinian state with part of eastern Jerusalem as its capital. The PA would receive land in southern Israel as part of a land swap for areas to which Israel would apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.