Will Trump Pull Out of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks?

JERUSALEM, Israel – A weekend report by the London-based Arabic-language daily al-Hayat implied that U.S. President Donald Trump may pull out of efforts to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

According to the report, P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas was extremely agitated following last week's "tense" meeting with senior Trump advisor Jared Kushner and negotiator Jason Greenblatt.

Abbas accused the two negotiators of setting preconditions for peace talks by asking him to condemn the previous Friday's terror attack outside the Damascus Gate that killed 23-year-old Border Police Staff Sgt. Hadas Malka.

Instead of condemning the attack, Abbas and senior Fatah officials accused Israel of committing a "war crime" by killing the three who carried out the combined shooting and stabbing attack.

"They sounded like Netanyahu's advisors and not like fair arbitrators," one P.A. official told Israel's Ha'aretz daily.

Kushner and Greenblatt also presented President Trump's request to stop monthly stipends to 600 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences for murdering Israelis. Abbas reportedly told them the payments are part of his government's "social responsibility."

Abbas further exacerbated the tension by refusing to meet with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

One senior Palestinian official told al-Hayat "[Kushner] will submit his report to the president and after it is submitted, Trump will decide if there's a chance for negotiations or it might be preferable to pull out of peace efforts."

Earlier in June, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told both the Senate and House Foreign Relation Committees the P.A. agreed to stop paying the monthly salaries, but later denied agreeing to the request.

Meanwhile, a Trump administration official called rumors that Trump will pull out of the peace process "nonsense."