Washington; US President Donald Trump today said he is working “very, very hard” to create peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Israel-Palestine conflict was one of the main topics discussed by Trump and visiting Jordanian King Abdullah.
“I’m working very, very hard on trying to finally create peace between the Palestinians and Israel and I think we’ll be successful,” Trump told White House reporters at a Rose Garden joint news conference with King Abdullah.
“I hope to be successful, I can tell you that. The King has been a really tireless advocate for a solution. He’s going to help me with that and help me at the highest level and we will be consulting with him very closely in the days ahead,” Trump said.
The Jordanian King described Israeli-Palestinian as core conflict in the region.
“As the president mentioned, the issue we discussed with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is essentially the core conflict in our region. And the President’s early engagement in bringing the Palestinians and Israelis together has been a very encouraging sign for all of us,” he said.
“It was that initiative that allowed us at the Arab summit last week to extend, through the Arab Peace Initiative, the message of peace to Israel, which we all hopefully will work together to make that come about. All Arab countries relaunched the Arab Peace Initiative, as I said, last week,” he said.
It offers a historic reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as all member states of the Arab League, the King said.
Describing this as the most comprehensive framework for lasting peace, King said it ensures statehood for the Palestinians, but also security, acceptance and normal ties for Israel with all Arab countries and hopefully all Islamic countries.
King Abdullah said the Arab peace initiative came out with a resounding resolution to offer peace to the Israelis, to make them feel that they are accepted into the neighbourhood and to be able to support Trump as he brings both parties together.
“I have to remind people that very early on, there was an early engagement by the President and his team to the Israelis and the Palestinians to be able to see what he could do to bring them together,” he said.
“It is the core conflict for a lot of us in the region. The President knows this. He has his instincts in the right place. And working with his team, our job, as I said, is to do the heavy lifting.
The Arabs are prepared to do whatever they can to bring Israelis and Palestinians together under the leadership of the President,” the King said.
PTI