Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will temporarily shelve his demand for Israel to freeze its settlement construction on lands the Palestinians demand for their aspired state, in order to allow for the long-stalled peace process to restart – this time, under the Trump Administration.
The decision by the Palestinian leader was declared in an interview by Bloomberg with a senior economic advisor of Abbas, Mohammad Mustafa, who also revealed that the Palestinian President will for that same reason tone down the Palestinian campaign, which seeks to persecute Israel for alleged war crimes and to stop promoting Israel’s condemnation in the United Nations.
The decision by President Mahmoud Abbas to start direct negotiations with Israel without pre-conditions is directly linked to US President Donald Trump’s decision to sign a waiver, which once again delayed a pledge by the United States to relocated its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a move that would effectively declare Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.
Another senior advisor to President Abbas, Mohammad Shtayyeh, declared that President Trump’s decision to sign the waver, was a move that granted him the Palestinians’ trust. That said, Palestinian officials have expressed concern in private conversations that the Americans are pushing too hard to resume negotiations without first studying the issue properly.