Al Jazeera News :
United States President Donald Trump is expected to release soon his long-awaited Middle East peace plan – more than two years after his administration began drafting its vision for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The policy proposal has been delayed multiple times and has been kept largely under wraps.
Trump said he will likely release details of his plan before holding separate meetings at the White House on Monday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival in upcoming Israeli elections, Benny Gantz. The Palestinian leadership, which has rejected the proposal before it is even released, was not invited to Washington.
“It’s a great plan. It’s a plan that really would work,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
“I love doing deals,” he said.
“They say peace between Israel and the Palestinians is the toughest – the toughest of any deal.”
The plan would be rolled out as Trump’s Senate impeachment trial continues on Capitol Hill and as Netanyahu seeks parliamentary immunity from prosecution in corruption cases. Both leaders also face re-elections: Israelis are due back in the
polls on March 2 and Trump is gearing up for the US presidential election on November 3.
The US has tried to release the plan multiple times before, but Israel has been engulfed in a political crisis after Netanyahu failed to form a majority government twice last year, creating uncertainty over who will be in charge to negotiate a peace deal.
“There have been several false starts by the US administration in the unveiling of a plan that has been ready for some time now,” said Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen, the director of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Program at the United States Institute of Peace.
United States President Donald Trump is expected to release soon his long-awaited Middle East peace plan – more than two years after his administration began drafting its vision for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The policy proposal has been delayed multiple times and has been kept largely under wraps.
Trump said he will likely release details of his plan before holding separate meetings at the White House on Monday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival in upcoming Israeli elections, Benny Gantz. The Palestinian leadership, which has rejected the proposal before it is even released, was not invited to Washington.
“It’s a great plan. It’s a plan that really would work,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
“I love doing deals,” he said.
“They say peace between Israel and the Palestinians is the toughest – the toughest of any deal.”
The plan would be rolled out as Trump’s Senate impeachment trial continues on Capitol Hill and as Netanyahu seeks parliamentary immunity from prosecution in corruption cases. Both leaders also face re-elections: Israelis are due back in the
polls on March 2 and Trump is gearing up for the US presidential election on November 3.
The US has tried to release the plan multiple times before, but Israel has been engulfed in a political crisis after Netanyahu failed to form a majority government twice last year, creating uncertainty over who will be in charge to negotiate a peace deal.
“There have been several false starts by the US administration in the unveiling of a plan that has been ready for some time now,” said Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen, the director of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Program at the United States Institute of Peace.
