Rubio ‘not optimistic’ on Middle East peace

Speaking to reporters beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, May 22, President Trump denied ever mentioning Israel in a meeting with Russian officials in the Oval Office on May 10.

Trump left Israel and headed to Rome, the next destination on his four-nation, five-stop tour of the Middle East and Europe.

Rubio also said that Palestinian leaders do not view peace the same was as many lawmakers in the United States. Peace talks have been stalled for years, most recently breaking down in 2014 following disagreements over Israeli settlement-building and a Palestinian move to reconcile with the Islamist group Hamas. For several years now, the Arab states have suggested that the plan can serve as a basis for negotiations, and that progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace can be met with parallel progress toward peace between Israel and other Arab states. “So Trump is, in those remarks, kind of putting Israeli-Palestinian peace kind of in the center of the agenda”.

Trump’s requests to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers came after then-FBI Director James Comey publicly revealed before the House intelligence committee on March 20 that the FBI had an investigation into collusion to influence the 2016 election.

Mashni pointed out there will be significant opposition to any land swap from hardliners in Palestine and Israel, making any long term agreement unlikely.

In a press conference from Bethlehem, US President Donald Trump offered his prayers for the people of Manchester following the deadly explosion at an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night.

“And it’s so interesting that our meeting took place on this very disgusting morning of death to innocent young people”, he said, referencing the late Monday bombing outside of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, UK.

In fact, so far Trump’s Mideast policy – at least on the Iran nuclear deal, settlement building and the US embassy – looks an awfully like that of President Obama’s, the man he vilified for weakness.

Prior to that, he traveled to Bethlehem for a one-hour meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Dozens of captives’ families demonstrated on Tuesday in the Nativity arena during Trump’s visit to the Church of Nativity.

Trump added that the State of Israel was a “strong and soaring monument to the solemn pledge we repeat and affirm “Never again”. “He wants peace”, he said. “The President will continue to focus on his agenda that he was elected to pursue by the American people”.

He said that he believes a “durable peace” between Israel, its Arab neighbors and the Palestinians can be reached “because of the common danger that the Arab world and Israel face from Iran, and because of the leadership that you bring to this process”. In the wake of that decision, he praised Trump’s decision to visit the holy site. Netanyahu must deal with opposition from right-wing nationalist elements within his coalition who oppose any Palestinian state being created in occupied territory where hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers now live. “I would have liked him to say something about the inequities and the human rights violations that take place in Saudi Arabia”.