Trump plan for Mideast will die before he does: Iran leader

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted 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 organizations 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 Organization 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.

© 2020 AFP