News Analysis: Palestinians concerned over Trump's Mideast peace vision

The first meeting of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House on Wednesday apparently focused on the upcoming U.S. action to resume the peace process in the Middle East which has been stalled since April 2014, analysts said.

However, they expect that more pressure would be exerted on the Palestinian side to make concessions, in terms of the way Trump Administration may handle the peace negotiations.

In a joint news briefing with Abbas on Wednesday evening after their first meeting, Trump said he will "do whatever is necessary to negotiate a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians."

He promised he will work as a "mediator, an arbitrator or a facilitator" to broker a deal between Israel and Palestine, and expressed hope that "there won't be such hatred for very long."

Abbas, meanwhile, highlighted specific demands that the Palestinians will stick to in talks with Israel: a two-state solution with Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state and Israel returning to its 1967 borders and ending its 50-year occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Abbas said he believes it is possible to reach a historic peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.

"We are coming into a new opportunity, a new horizon that would enable us to bring about peace," he said at the news briefing.

Samir Awad, a political science professor at Beir Zeit University in the West Bank, said visiting the White House to present Palestinian views and express their readiness for peace "is a good thing."

However, "Trump didn't mention anything related to the deep debate and resolving the permanent status issues," said Awad.

"Trump clearly said he is able to make peace and resolve the conflict between the two sides, and he vowed to do his best to make them committed to watch their practices on the ground," the professor added.

According to Awad, the Palestinians are more concerned that President Trump will focus on running the conflict and not resolving it, as "Trump might go for the choice of a regional peace instead in coordination with influential Arab states, and this is what Israel is also looking for."

Palestinian officials had earlier announced that they may accept a U.S. regional solution to the conflict with Israel, but it should be based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which demands a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders and the return of refugees in exchange for full Arab normalization with Israel.

Ahmad Rafiq Awwad, a West Bank political analyst, told Xinhua that Trump "hasn't offered a specific mechanism for a permanent solution and didn't say anything about what's next step based on the Arab Peace Initiative or on the two-state solution and the rights of the Palestinians."

"Trump neglected all the promises and the context of the speeches of his predecessors, mainly in relation to backing the two-state solution to resolve the conflict between the two sides that has been going on for so many decades," said Awwad.

He warned that Trump's vision of resolving the conflict might be close to the Israeli vision "which might drop the option of the two-state solution."

"Trump may discuss the outcomes of the occupation, but not for ending it, or he would seek more pressure on the Palestinians to accept his vision that Israel backs," the analyst said.

Hani el-Masri, a Ramallah-based political analyst, agreed that the United States might consider Israeli visions and terms more than Palestinian ones.

"Trump focused on calling the Palestinians to stop incitement in the media and boost the security coordination (with Israel) in return for resuming the U.S. financial aid to the Palestinians and maybe it has decided to postpone moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem," el-Masri told Xinhua.

The prominent Palestinian analyst warned that the scenario of recognizing a demilitarized Palestinian state built on only parts of the West Bank and without sovereignty might be the vision for the United States and Israel.

The last peace talks between Israel and Palestine, sponsored by the United States, lasted nine months and broke down in April 2014 over their deep differences on the issue of settlement building. Endit