It seems that Washington has started to realize the global advantages that lie in peacemaking. While Russia is engaged in intense bellicose activity in Syria in coordination with Iran, US President Donald Trump is interested in disengaging from Syria, working with North Korea to achieve a denuclearization agreement and progressing toward Israeli-Palestinian peace. Trump has instructed his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and his regional peace envoy Jason Greenblatt to further engage with the parties in the region in order to advance on the Israeli-Palestinian track. The administration is in constant contact on the matter with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and indirectly with Ramallah. For now, Trump will not take no for an answer from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
A senior PLO official close to Abbas told Al-Monitor that while the Palestinian president refuses any direct contact on a peace process with the administration given its pro-Israeli position and the upcoming move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, Ramallah is open to indirect contact. Abbas is ready to open indirect communication channels with the United States through his Arab partners, principally Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. These communication channels will focus on confidence-building measures and even on interim measures to stabilize the situation, prevent violence and recreate a new equilibrium in the international community.
In fact, according to the PLO official, there are several areas the Palestinian Authority (PA) is willing to look into. For instance, the leadership in Ramallah is ready to discuss PA rule over the Gaza Strip, accompanied by an international economic relief package. Another subject would be moving East Jerusalem neighborhoods to Palestinian rule (balancing somewhat the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem) and strengthening its religious control of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif). They are also ready to discuss US-led economic assistance for Palestinian economic growth and activity, including in West Bank Area C, which is under Israeli control.
Beyond that, Abbas will work together with his Arab partners, the European Union, Russia and China on UN resolutions regarding Palestinian statehood based on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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