RTE News :
US President Donald Trump threatened to withhold aid to the Palestinians if they did not pursue peace with Israel, saying the Palestinians had snubbed the United States by not meeting Vice President Mike Pence during a recent visit.
Mr Trump, speaking after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said he aimed for peace in the Middle East.
He said he hoped sound minds would prevail among Palestinians to pursue peace.
But then he warned: “When they disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great Vice President to see them, and we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support, tremendous numbers, numbers that nobody understands – that money is on the table and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace”.
Mr Pence visited the Middle East earlier this week and said the timing of a long-awaited US Middle East peace initiative depended on the return of Palestinians to negotiations.
“The White House has been working with our partners in theregion to see if we can develop a framework for peace,” Pence told Reuters in an interview in Jerusalem on the last leg of his three-day trip.
“It all just depends now on when the Palestinians are going to come back to the table.”
President Trump’s advisers have been working on the outlines of a plan for some time.
But Palestinians ruled out Washington as a peace broker after the US president’s 6 December recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Trump’s Jerusalem move angered the Palestinians, sparked protests in the Middle East and raised concern among Western countries that it could further destabilise the region.
Palestinians see East Jerusalem as capital of a future state.
A White House official told reporters he hoped the plan would be announced in 2018, however the official acknowledged that the United States and the Palestinian leadership had not had any direct diplomatic contact since Mr Trump’s Jerusalem declaration..
Mr Trump also met British Prime Minister Theresa May and assured her that “we love your country”.
Mr Trump said he wanted to correct a “false rumour” of a trans-Atlantic rift – sparked by their earlier spat over his retweeting of videos by far-right group Britain First and his decision not to visit London for the opening of the new US embassy.
Shaking hands with Mrs May before the cameras at the Swiss ski resort, Mr Trump said that they would “talk about” his mooted state visit to the UK.
But neither he nor the Prime Minister gave any clue when it might take place.
