Before going back home to Washington D.C., President Trump spoke before The Marines stationed in Italy. He discussed his efforts to promote peace and said “Both Netanyahu and Abu Mazen promised me they would work to attain peace.”
“I spoke with Palestinian leader Abu Mazen who promised me that he is prepared to work for a peace agreement with Israel and I believe that he will do so. Netanyahu also promised me he is prepared to attain peace. He is my friend and he means it,” Trump said.
Regarding his efforts to create a Sunni coalition against Iran Trump said: “We continue to isolate the Iranian regime because of its belligerent acts that destabilize the region. We strengthened our commitment that Iran will not possess nuclear weapons forever under any conditions.”
Senior Trump administration members say that Trump doesn’t want to wait long and he wants to initiate direct negotiations between both sides very shortly. They say: “The Trump administration wants the renewal of negotiations towards a final agreement as quick as possible.”
These senior members added that the administration is interested in having both sides come to Washington to start the talks within a month or two. The purpose of these talks is to narrow the gaps between sides so direct talks can deal with the main issues. Last week the Americans discussed elements of a final deal with Israel.
Israel has made it clear that any issues pertaining to its security are non-negotiable. Israel expressed its disappointment with American officials using the language used in previous administrations which consider the Israel Palestinian dispute the heart of all the problems in the Middle East and that solving it will allow solutions to solve all the other problems in the region. Such thinking is dangerously myopic and will cause the rest of the conflicts in the region to be ignored again as they were in the Obama administration. We hope that Trump will lead his administration and not be misled by them.