Saturday, May 19, 2018

U.S. Readies Mideast Peace Plan Rollout Next Month



US Mideast envoy: Now is the time to redouble our efforts to reach peace deal



US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Jason Greenblatt, said late Friday that the time has come to redouble efforts toward reaching a peace agreement in the region.
Greenblatt’s comments come after US sources told The Associated Press that the administration would likely present its long-awaited plan next month, following the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In a series of tweets in which Greenblatt congratulated Israel following the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, the envoy said it was now time to move forward. The embassy move caused widespread anger among Palestinians and in the Muslim world, and the Palestinians have effectively been boycotting US officials since the move was announced.

“I also have a message to all our friends in the region — Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Christians and Jews, and also to many others around the world, who regularly contact me to offer their support for @potus and our administration and our efforts to reach a peace agreement — the time has come to open a new chapter,” Greenblatt wrote in the tweets in Hebrew and Arabic.


“We need to redouble our efforts to find solutions to the many challenging issues and to see if we can finally, finally achieve peace,” Greenblatt wrote. “We all have a responsibility to try, Let’s start to work.”
Earlier the AP quoted five US officials and a congressional aide as saying that the administration intends to release the peace plan in mid- to late-June, shortly after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, although they cautioned that the timing could slip depending on developments in the region.
They say the plan’s main authors — US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Greenblatt — have already begun quietly briefing select allies and partners on elements of the proposal.
The administration has been resisting congressional demands to fully close the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington because Greenblatt and Kushner want to keep that channel open in case the Palestinians are open to re-entering negotiations with Israel based on the plan. The office was ordered closed by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last November, but has been allowed to stay open for limited purposes under the administration’s interpretation of the law requiring it to be shut down in the absence of peace talks.









The Trump administration is aiming to roll out its much-hyped but long-delayed Middle East peace plan next month amid signs it may further alienate the Palestinians by slashing millions of dollars in funding for humanitarian and development projects in the West Bank and Gaza.
Five US officials and a congressional aide say the administration intends to release the peace plan in mid- to late-June, shortly after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, although they cautioned that the timing could slip depending on developments in the region. They say the plan’s main authors — US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Trump’s special envoy for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt — have already begun quietly briefing select allies and partners on elements of the proposal.
Yet any Palestinian willingness to even consider the plan would require conditions to improve and anger to subside considerably in the coming weeks, an unlikely scenario as the Palestinians say evidence of one-sided Trump giveaways to Israel continues to pile up. US allies in Europe and the Persian Gulf also have felt compelled to criticize the administration for its approach. Ostensibly, Trump would need buy-in from those same countries to build enough momentum for any peace plan to succeed.

Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the embassy move and the administration’s unreserved defense of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies have alienated and angered the Palestinian leadership, which accuses the administration of abandoning its role as a neutral arbiter in the conflict. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said any deal needs to be between the Palestinians and Israel — not the United States.



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