The Arab language newspaper al-Hayat reported Friday that the White House was contemplating pulling out of Israeli-Palestinian following a tense meeting with officials in the city of Ramallah. The administration has disputed the report as “nonsense.”
The al-Hayat report quoted an unnamed Palestinian official who said that White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, “will submit his report to the president and, after it is submitted, Trump will decide if there’s a chance for negotiations or it might be preferable to pull out peace talks,” according a a Jerusalem Post translation.
Earlier in the week Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas held a meeting that an Abbas adviser characterized as “tense” to reporters.
Kushner had reportedly demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop all payments to terrorists and their families, causing Abbas to accuse the administration of taking Israel’s side. Abbas has contended the issue is a pretext to avoid in engaging in the talks and the payments are part of the authority’s responsibilities to all Palestinians.
Relations between the Palestinian Authority and the U.S. grew tenser still when Abbas did not condemn an attack last week that killed 23-year-old Israeli border policewoman St.-Sgt. Maj. Hadas Malka and Abbas reportedly refused to meet U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
