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U.S. to provide Palestinians with a financial package in exchange for peace

US President Donald Trump reportedly offered the Palestinian leadership 5 billion dollars in exchange for a comprehensive peace deal that aims to end the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to the Israeli financial-daily ‘Globes’, an American offer of five billion dollars will be matched by the European Union and Gulf states; a figure that is based on a series of ‘development-plants’ for the Palestinian economy across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to a Trump Administration official, who spoke to the Globes daily on condition of anonymity, “the American message is clear: either the Palestinian Authority continues to refuse and therefore drown in an acute economic crisis, or the leadership returns to its senses, sits down and talks and therefore gains political and economic independence.” A U.S. official told TV7 that the report of an American aid-package was indeed under review, but a specific figure was not yet agreed upon. The official note, however, that the “ultimate peace plan, on the foundation of a regional approach” was awaiting the approval of President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department rejected the report on any financial package, referring to the report by the Globes daily, as simply untrue. When asked on whether the Trump Administration remains committed to a two-state solution, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert stressed that the Trump Administration would support whatever both sides can come to an agreement on. According to her, “The President has said consistently that he supports a solution that both parties can work with, recognizing that both parties will have to compromise in order to come to some sort of an agreement. So, we support whatever both sides can work – can come to an agreement on.” Nauert further asserted that “The conflict has been going on, the disagreements have been going on for 70 years – a very, very long time. Nothing has worked despite the U.S. Government and other governments’ best efforts, right? Nothing has worked thus far. This administration has determined that it desires to take a different kind of approach in encouraging two sides to sit down and have that conversation. It’s something we’ll not back away from, recognizing that it’s certainly not going to be easy. We’ve seen that. But we remain committed to that.”

President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt revealed last night that the Trump administration was bracing itself for Israeli criticisms vis a vis some elements of its “peace deal,” yet refused to provide additional details. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Greenblatt noted that American negotiators had entered the ‘phase before the inauguration” of the Israeli-Arab peace initiative, despite a boycott from Palestinian leaders. That said, Trump’s Middle East envoy refrained from offering a time frame and sufficed by saying that the plan would not be announced at the United Nations General Assembly this month and that “both sides would find things they like and don’t like about it.”