President Donald Trump says he thinks there’s a ‘good chance’ his administration will be able to facilitate a Middle East peace deal.
Trump said at the beginning of a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly that he’s ‘giving it an absolute go.’
‘I think there’s a good chance that it could happen,’ Trump posited.
Netanyahu affirmed that they would discuss ‘the way we can seize the opportunity for peace’ not just between Israel and Palestine but Israel and Arab nations in the region.
President Donald Trump says he thinks there’s a ‘good chance’ his administration will be able to facilitate a Middle East peace deal
Trump made the declaration during a bilateral meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly
As journalists plowed into the room, Netanyahu loudly told Trump, ‘This is called a feeding frenzy.’
Trump mouthed something inaudible to him before he started speaking about the prospects for a peace deal.
‘We are giving it an absolute go. I think there’s a good chance that it could happen. Most people would say there’s no chance whatsoever. I actually think with the capability of Bibi and frankly the other side, I really think we have a chance,’ Trump said. ‘I think Israel would like to see it, and I think the Palestinians would like to see it. And I can tell you that the Trump Administration would like to see it.’
The former businessman said that the parties to a prospective agreement are ‘working very hard on’ a deal.
‘We’ll see what happens. Historically people say it can’t happen. I say it can happen,’ he added.
Trump has been sending his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and an envoy, Jason Greenblatt, to the Middle East for months in search of a deal. Kushner and Netanyahu have a long-standing relationship, as do Trump and the PM.
Like Netanyahu, Kushner and his family are Jewish. The president’s eldest daughter Ivanka converted to the religion when she married him. Both Jared and Ivanka are senior advisers at the White House to the president.
Netanyahu has been to visit Trump once at the White House in Washington, D.C. Trump made a stop in Israel in May during his first foreign trip.
Speaking to Trump today at their meeting during the annual convening of member states of the United Nations, Netanyahu said, ‘The alliance between America and Israel has never been stronger, never been deeper. I can say this in ways that people see and in ways that they don’t see.’
Trump will meet with Palestine’s leader Mahmoud Abbas later in the week.
During their last meeting, in Bethlehem when Trump made his Middle East swing, the U.S. president said he was ‘committed to trying to achieve a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.’
‘I intend to do everything I can to help them achieve that goal,’ he said at the time.
Trump told Abbas earlier in the month during side-by-side remarks in the White House’s Roosevelt room that he’d like to be a mediator or arbitrator of a deal.
‘But any agreement cannot be imposed by the United States, or by any other nation,’ he said. ‘The Palestinians and Israelis must work together to reach an agreement that allows both peoples to live, worship, and thrive and prosper in peace.’
Offering his services as a facilitator, Trump asserted: ‘We will get this done.’