Trump tries hand at Mideast peace
‘We will get it done,’ U.S. president tells Palestinian leader in White House meeting
Despite bleak prospects for success, United States President Donald Trump promised on Wednesday “to do whatever is necessary” to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
At a White House meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Trump pledged to reinvigorate the stalled Mideast peace process that has bedevilled his predecessors and said he would serve as “a mediator, an arbitrator or a facilitator” between the two sides. “We will get it done,” Trump confidently told Abbas.
“I’m committed to working with Israel and the Palestinians to reach an agreement,” Trump said. “But any agreement cannot be imposed by the United States or by any other nation. The Palestinians and Israelis must work together to reach an agreement that allows both peoples to live, worship, and thrive and prosper in peace.”
The source of Trump’s optimism was not immediately apparent. He offered no details about his effort or how it would be any different from attempts over the past two decades during which former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all tried and failed. Palestinian officials said after the meeting that Trump had not raised any specific proposals to restart negotiations.
Asked what distinguishes Trump’s plans from previous attempts, White House spokesperson Sean Spicer said merely: “The man is different.”
The peace process has been stalled since 2014, and there have been no serious attempts to restart negotiations.
Like previous U.S. leaders, Trump faces numerous obstacles in the long-shot bid. They include the contours of a potential Palestinian state, Jerusalem’s status and the question of Palestinian refugees. Complicating it all are the vehement Palestinian criticisms of Israeli settlement construction and Israeli complaints that Palestinians are inciting violence.
Abbas insisted he is committed to peace, but he made clear Palestinian demands for a separate state based on borders that existed before the 1967 Mideast war, a capital in East Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees.
“Our strategic option, our strategic choice is to bring about peace based on the vision of two states, a Palestinian state, with its capital of East Jerusalem, that lives in peace and stability with the state of Israel based on the borders of 1967,” he said.