Trump plan for ME will die before he does: Khamenei

TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted on Wednesday that Donald Trump would outlive the US president’s controversial proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

"This plan will certainly not work and it will die before Trump," Khamenei told a gathering in Tehran to mark the February 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled Iran’s US-backed shah. "The Americans negotiated with the Zionists on something that doesn’t belong to them," Khamenei said in a speech aired on state television.

"We believe the Palestinian militant organisations will rise up and carry on the resistance," he said, adding that Iran "considers it its duty to support Palestinian groups". Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises Khamenei on foreign policy, has dismissed the peace proposals unveiled on January 28 as an effort to "sell and dismantle Muslim lands".

The US plan, unveiled in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seen as overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, has been rejected by the Palestinians, Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

It grants the Jewish state full control over the disputed city of Jerusalem and gives it a US green light to annex key parts of the occupied West Bank, including the strategic Jordan Valley.

Khamenei said, “The Americans are taking comfort in the belief that choosing a big name for the plot against the Palestinian nation will help it to succeed.” This is while this “foolish and evil” scheme “has been working to their own detriment from the very beginning.”

He emphasized that the plan is doomed to die even before Trump’s own death, adding that Washington’s push “will definitely end in failure.” Khamenei further downplayed the warm reception of the plot by some “perfidious” Arab rulers, who are unpopular at home and have lost face among their own peoples, adding that such a show of support does not bear any significance.

“The Americans have made a deal with the Zionists over something that is not theirs [to give away in the first place]. Palestine belongs to Palestinians, and making decisions concerning it is exclusive to them,” Khamenei stated. Referring to Washington and Tel Aviv, he said,

“Who are you to make decisions for other people's lands and homes? This indicates your evilness, cunning, and malevolent nature.”Khamenei reassured that Trump’s scheme contrarily does Washington disservice and serves instead to revive the issue of Palestine, the Leader said.

He said the world’s arrogant powers will, however, attempt to push the plan through by relying on force and money, and that the Palestinian nation and all Palestinian factions and organizations should dedicate themselves to resisting America and Israel.

The entire Muslim world should in turn back up that struggle. Khamenei stressed the need for the Iranian nation’s turnout in both the celebratory marches that will come on the Revolution’s 41st anniversary and the upcoming parliamentary elections that have been scheduled for February 21 as “two big tests facing the great Iranian people.”

He recalled how some foreign media outlets had tried to downplay the Iranians’ millions-strong presence on nationally-important occasions, while at the same time hyping up the foreign-backed riots by a few hundred people.