Arab League to discuss ‘Deal of Century’ Sunday

CAIRO (AA) – The Arab League will hold an extraordinary meeting on Sunday, attended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to discuss the so-called “Deal of the Century”, a backchannel U.S. Mideast peace plan details of which have yet to be made public.</p> <p>“Arab officials have already heard several of the plan’s key elements,” Hossam Zaki, assistant Arab League secretary-general, said in a Friday press statement.</p> <p>“And what they have heard is not reassuring — at least in terms of Palestinian rights,” he added.</p> <p>While its terms remain vague, media leaks suggest that the plan will ask Palestinian refugees to concede their right to return to their homes in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel. </p> <p>On Wednesday, Jared Kushner, an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump (and his son-in-law), said terms of the deal would be unveiled during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which this year will begin in early May.