Netanyahu on Trump’s Peace Plan: ‘I Don’t See Any Urgency on This Matter’
LITHUANIA – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday he sees no urgency in revealing U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"It’s his issue if he wants to promote it," Netanyahu told journalists in Vilnius during a briefing following his meetings with the prime ministers of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. "It may come, even though I don’t see any urgency on the matter."
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When asked on the Palestinians’ disinterest in Trump’s plan, Netanyahu said "The Americans are thinking about it, they’re not blind, but I don’t know – when they proffer, we’ll see."
Regarding reports the plan would be revealed during the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu said he was unaware of such initiatives.
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On Tuesday, Trump said Israel will pay a "higher price" in peace negotiations with the Palestinians after his decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
"If there’s ever going to be peace with the Palestinians, then this was a good thing to have done," Trump said about the embassy move during a rally in West Virginia. "We took it off the table. In past negotiations, they never got past Jerusalem. Now Israel will have to pay a higher price, because it’s off the table. The Palestinians will get something very good, cause it’s their turn next."
Trump also said that he "now understands" why previous American presidents didn’t follow through on their promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, saying he has received endless phone calls from world leaders urging him not to go through with his decision. "But I approved it, and it should have been done years ago," he said. Trump also repeated what he has said in the past, that the Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is "the toughest of them all."
National Security Adviser John Bolton attempted to clarify Trump’s comment on Wednesday during a press conference in Jerusalem, saying the embassy move was "not an issue of quid pro quo," adding that he and anyone else would expect Palestinians to say "so we didn’t get that one, now we want something else," adding that "ultimately this is something the parties are going to have to agree on."