Tel Aviv: US President Donald Trump arrived in Israel on Monday on the second leg of his first overseas trip since entering office and said he had new reasons to hope for peace and stability to the Middle East after his visit to Saudi Arabia.
In a stopover lasting 28 hours, Trump is to meet separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Later on Monday, he will pray at Al Buraq Wall adjacent to Al Haram Al Sharif which has been hijacked by Israel and renamed as ‘the Western Wall’ where only Jews are allowed to pray. He will also visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Occupied Jerusalem, and on Tuesday he will travel to Bethlehem in the Occupied West Bank where he will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“During my travels in recent days, I have found new reasons for hope,” Trump said in a brief speech on arrival.
Trump and Melania sign the guest book at the Israeli President’s Residence. |
AFP |
“We have before us a rare opportunity to bring security and stability and peace to this region and its people, defeating terrorism and creating a future of harmony, prosperity and peace, but we can only get there working together. There is no other way,” he said.
Trump’s tour comes in the shadow of difficulties at home, where he is struggling to contain a scandal after firing James Comey as FBI director nearly two weeks ago. The trip ends on Saturday after visits to the Vatican, Brussels and Sicily.
Netanyahu claimed Israel shared Trump’s commitment to peace, but he also said he needed political and security demands from the Palestinians first, including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters en route to Tel Aviv that any three-way meeting between Trump, Netanyahu and Abbas was for “a later date”.
Trump has vowed to do whatever is necessary to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians — something he has called “the ultimate deal” — but has given little indication of how he could revive negotiations that collapsed in 2014.
When he met Abbas this month in Washington, he stopped shortly of explicitly recommitting his administration to a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, a long-standing foundation of US policy. He has since spoken in support of Palestinian “self-determination”.
Trump has also opted against an immediate move of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem, a longtime demand of Israel.
A senior administration official told Reuters last week that Trump remained committed to his campaign pledge to ultimately relocate the embassy, but would not announce such a move during this trip: “We’re having very good discussions with all parties and, as long as we see that happening, then we don’t intend to do anything that we think could upset those discussions.”
Netanyahu has come under pressure from right-wing members of his own coalition who say he is not pushing hard enough to get Trump to carry out his promise.
Over the weekend, Trump received a warm welcome from Arab leaders, who focused on his desire to restrain Iran’s influence in the region, a commitment they found wanting in the Republican president’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
On Sunday, Israel authorised some economic concessions to the Palestinians that it said would improve civilian life in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and were intended to respond to Trump’s request for “confidence-building steps”.
The United States welcomed the move but the Palestinians said they had heard such promises before.
