Saudis, allies 'back US peace plan without Palestine support'

Arab countries have backed a US peace plan even though Palestinians have refused to discuss it and warned is doomed to fail, Yisrael Hayom reported on Monday.

The Israeli news website said senior officials in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and ‎the United Arab Emirates have said they will support the plan even if the Palestinian Authority fails to do so.

"Having become fed up with PA President ‎Mahmoud Abbas' rejectionism, they will not stand in [US President] ‎Trump's way when he presents his Middle East peace ‎plan," the report said.

"However, officials in all four nations made it clear ‎to both US envoys that they would not be party to any ‎deal that compromises Palestinian interests,"

The report quoted an unnamed Egyptian official as saying that Trump's Middle East envoys have been told Arab countries will not accept a deal that fails to recognise an independent Palestinian state with east ‎Jerusalem as its capital.

Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser said in an interview published on Sunday that the administration will soon present its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, with or without input from Abbas.

In an interview published in the Arabic-language al-Quds newspaper, Jared Kushner criticised Abbas, who has shunned the Trump team over its alleged pro-Israel bias, particularly on the fate of contested Jerusalem.

The interview came out after a weeklong trip around the region by Kushner and Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt.

The team met with leaders of Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to discuss the administration's proposals for a deal that Trump has called the "the deal of the century."

Palestinian leaders have refused to meet with the Trump team since the president recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December.

Israel captured the city's eastern half, home to holy sites for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it.

The annexation is not internationally recognised and Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.