Netanyahu meets American negotiating team
Netanyahu meets American negotiating teamHaim Zach/GPO

The U.S. negotiators seeking to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday said that neither side will be satisfied with the Trump administration’s peace proposal, but added that was the only way to achieve true peace.

“No one will be fully pleased with our proposal, but that’s the way it must be if real peace is to be achieved. Peace can only succeed if it is based on reality,” said a joint statement by the U.S ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and special representative for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt.

The statement was posted to Greenblatt’s Twitter account and was also published in Hebrew and Arabic.

The U.S. peace plan, despite not having been made public yet, has thus far been met with resistance from PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his aides. They have refused to engage with the U.S. in protest over Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem of Israel’s capital and his relocating the U.S. embassy to the city.

Last week, a source said that the U.S. National Security Council has published a tender to hire experts for a steering committee to be established for the plan. The committee would allegedly be chaired by Middle East special envoy Jason Greenblatt.

According to the source, the administration would not be able to present the final peace plan until 2019.

National Security Spokesperson Garrett Marquis later told Arutz Sheva that the report was false.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also rejected reports that the Trump administration’s peace plan has been delayed, saying that when it is ready to be unveiled, it will be unveiled by Kushner and Greenblatt.