08 September 2017•Update: 08 September 2017
RAMALLAH, Palestine
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Friday welcomed recent remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the stalled Israel-Palestine peace process.
“The Palestinian side will continue to deal positively with President Trump's efforts to restart negotiations and is ready to contribute to their success,” the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement.
At a Thursday press conference in Washington with Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al Sabah, Trump reiterated his determination to help achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel.
“I think we have a chance of doing it,” Trump said, adding: “We're going to give it our best.”
In its Friday press statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry described the U.S. president’s remarks as “a strong message to the other [i.e., Israeli] side, which is trying… to thwart those efforts”.
It went on to urge the U.S. administration to accelerate its peacemaking efforts with a view to “saving peace and the two-state solution”.
The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed its desire to revive the stalled Middle East peace process.
Earlier peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down in 2014 over the latter’s refusal to release Palestinian prisoners despite earlier pledges to do so.
Since then, all attempts to revive the negotiations have failed, due mainly to Israel's insistence on continuing to build Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
Reporting by Qais Abu Samra; Writing by Ali Abo Rezeg
