BICOM

Businessman Haim Saban has told Israeli media that the Trump administration is likely to present its long-awaited plan for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by the end of 2018 or early in 2019.

Saban and Paul Singer hosted a dinner on Tuesday night in New York with several members of the White House team, including US special advisor Jared Kushner, Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, as well as several former US diplomats, including Martin Indyk and Elliot Abrams, and prominent businessman such as Robert Kraft and former Time Warner executive Gary Ginsberg.

Speaking to Ilana Dayan on Israeli Army Radio, Saban said that “when the issue of two states for two peoples came up, they asked me how do you define a state? We should wait to see how their creativity will be received by both sides and whether they can live with it”. Saban also reiterated the Trump’s administrations belief that the Palestinians will return to the negotiating table.

On Tuesday Haley said she has read the Trump administration’s peace plan, adding that it is not yet finished, supressing speculation that it might be published later this month during the UN General Assembly. “I can tell you that Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt have done unbelievably detailed work in it. I have read the plan. It is thoroughly done. It is well-thought-out from both sides — the Palestinians and the Israelis,” she said. Haley also called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to end their boycott of the Trump administration.

A report in Hahadashot this week said the Trump administration has indicated that its plan for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will not be unveiled until after the November midterm elections in the US, and possibly not until 2019.