White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner had an “extremely productive” meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last week, after reports of tension between the two sides.
“I think the meetings were extremely productive,” Spicer told reporters in an off-camera press briefing. “They’re going to make incremental movements forward but it’s going to be a process. It’s not going to be solved in a night, and I think they made some good progress overall and also continuing to build trust between all the parties.”
President Trump has tasked Kushner with helping negotiate Middle East peace. During his meeting with Abbas, Kushner reportedly demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop making payments to terrorists and their families, which made Abbas accuse Kushner and U.S. negotiator Jason Greenblatt of taking Israel’s side.
Spicer said Trump made the same point about payments to Abbas when Abbas visited the White House in May.
“It’s no secret, I know, that when President Abbas was here we discussed the payments as an issue then, so it should be no surprise that it came up, but I would argue that the relationship continues to be very strong and move forward in a positive way,” Spicer said.
Relations were reportedly further strained when Abbas failed to denounce a terrorist attack that killed a soldier in Jerusalem and refused to meet with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
The White House on Sunday denied a report that Trump is considering pulling out of peace negotiations as a result of the Kushner-Abbas meeting.
