Trump aide Kushner meets Abbas in Mideast peace push

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with White House senior advisor Jared Kushner in the West Bank City of Ramallah, June 21, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

RAMALLAH - Jared Kushner, a senior advisor to United States President Donald Trump, announced Wednesday night that President Trump is committed to reaching a serious peace deal, a senior Palestinian official said.

Nabil Abu Rdineh, a senior aid to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in an official press statement that Kushner's remarks were made in a meeting held in Ramallah with President Abbas.

He said that Abbas received at his office in Ramallah Kushner and Trump's envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt, who are visiting in the region, and had held earlier talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Abu Rdineh said that President Abbas stressed during the meeting on the principle of the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 with east Jerusalem as its capital.

"The meeting has deeply and clearly discussed all the permanent status issues, mainly refugees and prisoners," Abu Rdineh said.

President Abbas visited the United States and met with President Trump in the White House earlier this year, and then President Trump visited in the West Bank city of Bethlehem and met with Abbas.

"During the meeting, Kushner told President Abbas that President Trump is committed to reaching a serious peace deal," said Abu Rdineh, who attended the meeting.

He said that President Abbas expressed to Kushner and Greenblatt his commitment to peace based on the international resolutions and the 2002 Arab peace initiative.

The last direct peace talks held between Israel and the Palestinians were sponsored by the United States.

The talks stopped in April 2014 after it went on for nine months without achieving any breakthrough due to deep disputes on Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.