A political source responded Sunday to a report in The New York Times that the US administration has begun to formulate a framework to renew political contacts between Israel and the PA.
"The US administration's peace plan is still far away," the source told Arutz Sheva, adding that "the administration is in an advanced stage of the process, but they have already understood that the situation here is much more complex than initially thought."
He mentioned that, in the past, the idea of convening a summit meeting with the participation of Prime Minister Netanyahu, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and President Trump was brought up several times.
"There were even attempts to set deadlines. Nothing came to fruition, and the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas created new problems that the US has not yet managed to deal with," the source concluded.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that US President Trump is planning to launch another new phase in efforts to promote a Middle East peace process.
The report is based on sources in the White House who said that Trump and his peace team had already begun drafting the new plan.
According to the report, the plan is intended to go beyond previous frameworks offered by the American government in pursuit of what the president calls “the ultimate deal.”
After 10 months of educating themselves on the complexities of the world’s most intractable dispute, White House officials said, Trump’s team has moved into a new phase of its venture in hopes of transforming what it has learned into tangible steps to end a stalemate that has frustrated even presidents with more experience in the region.
Analysts said they anticipated that the plan will be built around the so-called “two-state solution” despite the fact that Trump has been non-committal to a Palestinian state.
It should be noted that the political source added that, although President Trump never referred to the term "Palestinian state" in the Israeli-PA context, it is not inconceivable that, upon consultation with his advisers, he could propose a solution that would implement, in some form or another, the notion of two states, possibly in the form of an autonomous demilitarized Palestinian state, as Netanyahu demanded.
Abbas opposes any type of initiative that does not include the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, including an army and police forces.
