Trump’s Mideast peace plan delayed until after US polls

By Osama Ghassani

JERUSALEM

The “Deal of the Century”, a backchannel U.S. Middle East peace plan, could be delayed until after November elections in the U.S., according to reports in the Israeli media.

On Friday, Israel HaYom, an Israeli daily, quoted an unnamed source “close to the White House” as saying the deal would likely not be formally unveiled for “several more months” due to the upcoming congressional polls.

A wide-ranging Middle East peace plan championed by U.S. President Donald Trump, few details of the so-called “Deal of the Century” have been made public.

According to the source quoted by Israel HaYom, the Trump administration believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be “unable to commit himself to the terms of the deal” in the period before the election.

The deal, the same source added, will call for several “concessions” by Israel, which could, he said, have a negative impact on the electoral prospects of Republican candidates in the Nov. 6 polls.

What’s more, the source asserted, Netanyahu will likely be unable to endorse certain aspects of the plan -- such as recognition of Jerusalem’s Abu Dis district as capital of a future Palestinian state -- because his political rivals in Israel would be able to use this against him.

“Arab sources” quoted by the same newspaper, meanwhile, said that Arab states involved in the deal -- namely, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- also preferred to unveil the deal’s terms following the U.S. midterm elections.

Palestinian leaders, for their part, have repeatedly voiced their rejection of the deal, which, they say, fails to meet minimum Palestinian demands.