US President Donald Trump and PA leader Mahmoud Abbas. (AP/Evan Vucci, File)
Sunni states reportedly urged Abbas to meet with US advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt when they come to the region this week.
By: World Israel News Staff
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is reportedly facing pressure from Arab leaders to meet with US President Donald Trump’s top Middle East advisers this week, according to a report by Israel Hayom.
Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and US Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt will visit Israel, Egypt and Jordan this week to discuss the upcoming US peace plan for the region.
Abbas has rejected the US as a peace broker in the wake of Trump’s Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying the move proved the US was ”grossly biased” toward Israel. He has also lashed out at US Ambassador David Friedman in an anti-Semitic rant.
Abbas has conditioned any meeting with US officials on Washington rescinding its recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and canceling its embassy move there.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Palestinian media Sunday that the US diplomats’ visit is “a waste of time” and that the US peace plan is “doomed to fail.”
However, several Palestinian sources told Israel Hayom that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan, as well as top officials in the Palestinian Authority itself, are pressuring Abbas to meet with the American envoys.
Citing Trump’s strong stand against Iran and North Korea on nuclear weapons and against Canada and the EU on trade tariffs, Palestinian sources said there was concern the US would take painful punitive actions against them if they continued to boycott US efforts to achieve a peace agreement.
The sources also said that the Arab states provided assurances that they would back Abbas as long as his opposition to the US recommendations appear “rational and strategic.” They would not, however, back Abbas’s blanket refusal to even listen to the proposal.
“Diplomatic suicide” was the term used to describe Abbas’s present stance, according to the Palestinian sources that spoke with Israel Hayom.
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