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Official: Trump seeks to warm Israel-Arab relations

May 25, 2017 at 2:03 pm

US President Donald Trump (L) is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) in Tel Aviv on 22 May 2017 [Daniel Bar On/Anadolu Agency]

A senior US official said the administration of US President Donald Trump is interested in “warming” relations between Israel and the Arab world in an attempt to revive the peace process in the Middle East.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper yesterday quoted the US official as saying that Washington is also interested in setting forth a “common set of principles that everyone wants to abide by”.

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According to the source: “The first step there is to bring relationships [between the Arab world and Israel] that are warm and strong privately and bring them more public and also set forth a common set of principles that everyone wants to abide by” in order “to create a lot of momentum and optimism around the prospect for peace.”

Read: Israeli minister reveals ‘secret talks’ with Arab countries

The official explained that the US administration does not expect a near agreement between Israel and the Palestinians saying:

You can’t just walk in on Day One and sign a deal that no one has gotten done in 35 years.

However he added that the administration is “very optimistic that we have the ability to do some very transformative things that will really surprise a lot of people.”

The goal of Trump’s visit to the Middle East was to listen to the positions of the two parties and hear the positions of other countries, he added.