Trump, Abbas affirm support to reach a peace deal with Israel

U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the West Bank city of Bethlehem Tuesday to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Both leaders stressed their longing for peace and for achieving a peaceful settlement for the Palestinians-Israeli conflict through peace negotiations.

After a short meeting, Abbas and Trump held a press conference at the Presidential headquarters in Bethlehem.

"Achieving the freedom and independence of the Palestinian people is the key to peace and stability in our region and the world in order for the children of Palestine and Israel to enjoy a secure, stable and prosperous future," Abbas said.

"We reassert our commitment to cooperate for making peace and seal a historic peace deal between us and Israelis, and we reassert our willingness to continue working with you as partners to combat terrorism in our region and the world," he added.

Abbas reiterated the Palestinian commitment to work with the U.S. president to achieve a historic peace deal, based on the two-state solution and international legitimacy.

end their suffering.

Trump said that he will exert all possible efforts to achieve a peace deal between Palestinians and Israelis, stressing that "he is looking forward to working with President Abbas to support Palestinian economy."

"We want to work with sincere intentions to achieve peace," Trump said, adding that both sides have promised to seek a peace deal.

Abbas and Trump both affirmed their support to finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Trump held a series of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin Monday in Israel.

In a joint press conference, Trump and Netanyahu said they will renew efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians and to confront Iran.

The last peace talks between Israel and Palestine stopped in 2014, after nine months of U.S. sponsored talks that achieved no breakthrough.

Ramallah based political analyst Sa'ad Nimer said that it is highly unlikely that this visit will bring a clear initiative for the peace process, but would focus on hearing from both sides.

"We don't think that at this point that Trump had any initiative for the peace process or a program ready made for this visit, but rather, he would like to say for Palestinians and Israelis to build trust between themselves and try to hear from both sides anything that would help later on with developing his own initiative toward the middle east and the Palestinian question," said Nimer.

Nimer said that if Trump would come to present a peace plan, it would have to wait for months before any results can be seen on the ground, without raising hopes about achieving a breakthrough soon.