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Biden brings Palestinians aid but no new peace plan
Biden will restate his backing for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict and will unveil a fresh package of economic and technical assistance for the Palestinians, but there are no expectations of any major political breakthrough.
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US President Joe Biden (left) holds a bilateral meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid at a hotel in Jerusalem on July 14, 2022.
(AFP/Mandel Ngan)
U
S President Joe Biden will not come with a plan to restart the stalled Israel-Palestinian peace process when he visits the West Bank on Friday, at the end of the first leg of his Middle East trip, a senior administration official said.
Biden will restate his backing for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict and will unveil a fresh package of economic and technical assistance for the Palestinians, but there are no expectations of any major political breakthrough.
"[There] are practical realities on the ground that we are very mindful of so we have not come in with a top-down plan but we have always said that if the parties are ready to talk, and we think they should, we will be there, right beside them," the official said, quoted by Reuters.
Biden is expected to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem before leaving for Saudi Arabia on the second stage of his trip.
With Palestinians banned by Israel from political activity in Jerusalem, the US president will travel to Bethlehem to meet Abbas.
The Palestinian president has been in office since 2005 and last year scrapped elections, blaming Israeli officials for allegedly refusing to guarantee voting in east Jerusalem.
The US delegation will unveil plans to roll out infrastructure for faster 4G internet across Gaza and the West Bank by the end of next year, fulfilling a longstanding aspiration among Palestinians as some of their Israeli neighbours already tap in to 5G networks.
