2017-03-10 20:31:31
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, invited the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to visit the White House this Friday in a telephone conversation he had with him, reported the latter’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaina.
“President Trump invited President Abbas to visit the White House very soon,” Abu Rudaina said after the conversation, which took place around 7:00 p.m. local time (2:00 p.m. Colombian time). This is the first time that both leaders have spoken since Trump occupied the White House.
The Palestinian president was invited “to discuss ways to resume the political process, emphasizing their commitment to a peace process that leads to true peace between Israelis and Palestinians”according to an official statement released by the Wafa agency.
“For his part, President Abbas underlined our commitment to peace as a strategic option for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel,” added the spokesman, who already clarified before the conversation that the Palestinian leader would convey to Trump his willingness “to work with him” to achieve peace in the region.
Trump-style diplomacy
Trump arrived at the White House with a tacit position of support for Israel and with the idea that the solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians through the creation of two states does not have to be the only way to solve that problem.which generated confusion in Ramallah and throughout the Arab world.
Furthermore, the close relationship developed between Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he received in February at the White House, added to all kinds of electoral promises such as the possible transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem, cast doubt on the relations between United States and the Palestinians.
Unlike Washington’s attitude toward Israel, with fluid communication that developed long before Trump’s victory, Palestinians complained that the new US administration had marginalized them and was not doing enough to engage. with them.
This Friday’s telephone conversation, which lasted “several minutes” according to local media, also precedes the scheduled visit to the area by Jason Greenblatt, one of Trump’s main diplomatic advisors and who also plans to travel to Ramallah.
Before the conversion, the Palestinian leader spoke with Jordanian King Abdullah II to discuss issues related to the latest developments regarding Palestine and the region.
They also addressed the Arab Summit taking place in Amman later this month, at which Arab countries are expected to express an unequivocal stance towards the two-state solution as a way to resolve the historic Middle East conflict.
controversial words
From the beginning, Trump moved away from the position defended for years by his predecessors of a two-state solution to achieve peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I am considering two states or one state, and I want what the two parties want. I am very happy with what the parties want. I can live with whichever one,” the president said at the joint press conference after the meeting with Netanyahu. February 15.
“The United States supports peace and a genuine peace agreement,” he said then, urging both parties to negotiate directly. The US ambassador to the UN, Nukki Haley, met for the first time on Tuesday with the Palestinian envoy to the international organization, Riyad Mansur.
Palestinians should “meet with Israelis for direct negotiations”rather than expecting results from the UN that can only be obtained between the two parties,” Haley said on Twitter after the meeting.
For his part, Mansur said that during their 45-minute meeting Haley expressed “the desire to see both sides resume negotiations” and that the United States intended to relaunch the discussions. “I don’t know at what level they want to do it, but when we receive a request along those lines we will respond appropriately,” she added.
Previous meeting with director of the CIA
Abbas held a meeting on February 15 with the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Mike Pompeo, in which they addressed security issues and the two-state solution.
As the high-ranking official explained on condition of anonymity, during a meeting on Tuesday in the West Bank, Abbas and Pompeo expressed the need to promote security cooperation to achieve the two-state principle.
The head of Palestinian Intelligence, Majed Faraj, was in charge of preparing the meetingafter meeting a week ago in Washington with Pompeo and members of the US Executive.
EFE and AFP
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