BICOM

According to a report in Axios, US President Donald Trump is considering presenting his Middle East peace plan to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), despite the PA’s refusal to participate in negotiations.

The report by Barak Ravid quotes a senior US official who said that although the plan still not finalised, “we are very optimistic that all relevant countries who want to support a peace agreement between the two sides are still waiting for our plan, want to work with us and realise we cannot be replaced. Despite all of the false reports about our plan, we are confident it will be beneficial to both sides and both peoples”.

Following Trump’s Jerusalem recognition, the PA said it will only enter peace talks with Israel provided they are carried out under the auspices of international parties rather than solely the US. PA President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to go to the UN and has been seeking unilateral recognition from EU countries.

Yesterday in Ramallah Abbas and Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj met Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to discuss cooperation on security matters, including training and training exercises.

This morning Kan Radio News announced that Abbas will address the UN Security Council (UNSC) in approximately three weeks. The representative of Kuwait, the alternating president of the Security Council, said that it was important that the council hear Abbas during their meetings about the Middle East. Reports in Israel yesterday claimed that Abbas would seek UNSC recognition of the State of Palestine, although this would almost certainly result in a US veto.

During the recent extraordinary session of the international donor group for Palestine in Brussels on 31 January – in which Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah participated – US Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt said that the Trump administration continues drafting its peace plan and called on the Palestinians to return to the peace talks.

“Peace will not be achieved by walking away from negotiations. It is easy to walk away from the table. But that helps no one, and it reduces or perhaps eliminates the chances of achieving a comprehensive peace agreement. And that would be terrible for the Palestinian people,” said Greenblatt.