Donald Trump vows to broker peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians but fails to explain how

Middle East peace process ‘not as difficult as people have thought’, US President says after meetings with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas

US President Donald Trump has boldly stated his desire to do “whatever is necessary” to achieve a lasting peace deal in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite the failure of several previous US administrations.

“I will do whatever is necessary... I would love to be a mediator or an arbitrator or a facilitator, and we will get this done," Mr Trump told Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas during his visit to Washington DC on Wednesday.

The president did not elaborate on any new policies or timetables to revive the long-stalled negotiations, and stopped short of explicitly endorsing a two-state solution.

In the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders Mr Trump’s administration called on the PA to do more to tackle violence against Israelis and end payments to the families of those killed or imprisoned by Israel.

Mr Abbas told Mr Trump that Palestinians would be partners in seeking a “historic peace treaty” under “your courageous stewardship and your wisdom, as well as your great negotiating ability,” while reiterating the core Palestinian belief Israel must end its occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank over the 1967 Green Line.

To the scepticism of many observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the US president added that a peace deal is “maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years.”

Mr Trump is widely viewed in Israel and the wider Middle East as far more sympathetic to Israeli interests - including the contentious issue of settlement building - than his predecessor Barack Obama.

However, he has reiterated his desire to secure peace in the region on several occasions, appointing his son-in-law Jared Kushner to broker a peace deal.

During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s state visit to DC in February Mr Trump suggested that he is open to the idea of a one-state, rather than two-state, solution to the intractable conflict. Such a move would be a marked change from US policy since Bill Clinton’s tenure which, alongside the UN, EU, Arab League and others, has been to promote the idea of a peace deal involving a Palestinian state.

But the president’s first 100 days in office have proved he can be unpredictable on foreign policy matters.

Despite his pro-Israeli campaign trail rhetoric, since entering the White House Mr Trump has caught some Israeli hard-liners off guard with the suggestion the Netanyahu coalition government should “hold back” on settlement building, and his administration has equivocated over whether the US embassy will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as promised.

Sources in the State Department told Reuters that plans for a visit to Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem later this month, and possibly Mr Abbas in Ramallah, are being firmed up. Both US and Israeli officials have declined to comment on whether there will be a meeting between the three.

The trip would be Mr Trump’s first outside the US as president.