During their first official meeting at the White House on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi discussed a possible Israeli-Palestinian peace summit to be held in Washington in a few months.
According to reports, Trump is relying on Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf nations to take an active role in persuading Palestinians to come to the negotiating table.
The announcement comes after U.S. Special Envoy for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt met with Arab leaders and told them that Trump was committed to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, according to al-Hayat newspaper.
“One of the ideas that was raised in the Egyptian-American meetings in Washington is holding a peace summit hosted by the United States this summer,” the London-based paper quoted American sources.
During the meeting, Sisi presented the Arab nations’ position on the conflict in which they call for a “comprehensive and just solution to this issue, based on the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
Sisi pledged to support Trump’s efforts in making “the deal of the century,” he said using the American president’s own words.
“You, Mr. President, can find a solution,” he said.
Overall the meeting was reported as positive. Trump appears to be trying to improve relations with Egypt after the Obama administration’s ties with the Middle Eastern country ran cold over the last two years.
“You have a great friend and ally in the United States and in me,” Trump told Sisi, who praised Sisi’s crackdowns on terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood. “He has done a fantastic job in a difficult situation.”
Trump pledged to work together to fight terrorism. Egypt and Israel are some of America’s strongest allies in the region. Egypt receives $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid annually. The army is trying to quell an Islamic insurgency in the Sinai in which hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police have been killed.
According to Dubai-based media, al-Khaleej Times, King Abdullah II of Jordan will also present Trump with a framework for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal during his visit to the White House this week.
Trump has a scheduled meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later this month in Washington.