Trump Talks to Abbas for First Time Since Inauguration

March 13, 2017

by: Ilse Posselt

Monday, 13 March 2017 | The call came on Friday. Forty-nine days after taking office US President Donald Trump telephoned Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, marking their first official contact since Trump’s inauguration in January.

The discussion was a short one, reports Ynet News. Yet despite its brevity, the call has raised Palestinian spirits considerably.

Since Trump took to the White House, Palestinian fears have increased of being “sidelined” by the US President, who adopted a more favorable approach towards Israel. In the month and a half since taking power, Trump has spoken to Netanyahu twice. The Israeli prime minister also received a warm reception when visiting Washington in February.

Moreover, during Netanyahu’s visit, Trump also backed away from the US’s customary commitment to a two-state solution as the only answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While he highlighted his desire to broker a peace agreement between the two sides, calling it “the ultimate deal,” Trump made it clear that he believed the issue could be resolved through either one or two states. “I am looking at two states and one state,” Trump told reporters at the time. “I am very happy with the one that both parties like.”

The US President’s statements caused an uproar among Palestinian leadership, with Abbas and a number of other role-players speaking out publicly against Trump’s stance.

Furthermore, over the last month and a half, the US president has also talked officially with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and the leaders of three other Persian Gulf kingdoms. Abbas, Ynet News says, found himself at the back of the regional queue.

However, Friday’s call allegedly improved Abbas’s attitude regarding the Trump situation.

According to Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Trump invited the PA president “to visit the White House soon to discuss ways to resume the [Palestinian-Israeli] political process.”

Following the call, Abbas is also convinced that Trump remains committed to a two-state solution. “The [US] president promised his full commitment to peace and to the two-state solution, and we emphasized our permanent stand, that we are for peace based on two states according to international decisions and that we are part of international legitimacy,” Abbas said.

For its part, the White House issued a press release following the call. According to the statement, Trump “emphasized his personal belief that peace is possible and that the time has come to make a deal. The president noted that such a deal would not only give Israelis and Palestinians the peace and security they deserve, but that it would reverberate positively throughout the region and the world.”

The release also stressed that Trump told Abbas that any future peace agreement would be the result of direct negotiations between the two parties. “The United States cannot impose a solution on the Israelis and Palestinians, nor can one side impose an agreement on the other.”

The statement confirmed that Trump had invited Abbas to “a meeting at the White House in the near future.”

Trump’s call to Abbas came after a visit to Israel by the US president’s special Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt. A former student of the Har Etzion yeshiva in Judea and Samaria, Greenblatt is set to touch down in the Promised Land tomorrow and will reportedly have meetings in both Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Posted on March 13, 2017

Source: (Bridges for Peace, 13 March 2017)

Photo Credit: US State Department photo/ Public Domain/ Wikipedia