Report: Abbas slaps conditions on proposed Trump meet at UN

US President Donald Trump reportedly offered to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.

According to Israel’s Hadashot TVnews, Trump’s offer comes as the White House seeks “to re-establish ties with the Palestinians”.

Abbas, however, “responded that he would only accept such a meeting in return for significant diplomatic gestures that would renew trust between the sides”, and also “demanded that Trump fire his Middle East negotiating team, including envoy Jason Greenblatt and the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner”.

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The TV report said that both Trump’s offer and Abbas’ response were “conveyed via third parties”, with Abbas’ conditions amounting “to a rejection of the US overture”.

According to the same report, the Trump administration has indicated that its long-awaited “deal of the century” proposal for Israel and the Palestinians “will not be unveiled until after the November midterm elections in the US, and possibly not until well into 2019”.

There has previously been speculation that the parameters of any such “deal” will only be revealed after the US midterms, and after Israeli elections widely tipped for the first quarter of 2019.