US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will likely wait until after the September elections in Israel to release his peace plan for Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, but added that he could release some parts of the plan before the elections.
“I probably will wait, but we may put out pieces of it. We have some very talented people -- as you know, our great ambassador and others. We have some very talented people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“But that's probably the toughest deal of all -- peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians -- because they've been decades of hate. And it's tough to make a deal when there's that much hate,” he continued.
Trump added, “I think I've helped it very much by saying, ‘Look, until there's a deal, we're not going to pay you anymore.’ And other people should have done that long before me.”
The peace initiative, partially unveiled at a Bahrain conference in June, dangled the prospect of pumping $50 billion-worth of investment into the Palestinian Authority economy.
Little is known about the political component of the peace plan, but Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and one of the authors of the plan, indicated in April that the plan would not focus on the two-state solution.
Trump’s special envoy, Jason Greenblatt, said in an interview last week that the President has not yet decided whether to unveil his Middle East peace plan before or after the Israeli elections.
Greenblatt also said that the US hopes eventually to engage with the Palestinian Authority on an accord, even though it has been boycotting the Trump administration ever since he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
