Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - U.S. President Donald Trump is to meet with three Arab leaders on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Trump is due to meet with Jordanian King Abdullah for an hour-long discussion before midday. Immediately afterwards, he will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Trump is due to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi in the evening. Trump is expected to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with all three leaders.
Trump has met with Abbas twice since assuming office. Their first meeting took place in early May, when Abbas arrived for a state visit to Washington. The meeting was described as good and productive by both sides. Two weeks later, however, the two leaders' meeting in Bethlehem, part of Trump's first trip abroad as president, was reportedly tense and uncomfortable.

Since then, Abbas has met twice with Trump's senior advisers who are working on the peace process, and he has publicly expressed his commitment to Trump's attempt to renew negotiations with Israel.

In an interview with the London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Quds al-Arabi, Abbas confirmed that in his most recent conversation with Jared Kushner, the senior Trump adviser had asked for a month-long time-out to develop ideas that would be presented to both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Abbas' associates did not provide an official reaction to the fact that Trump did not mention the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in his own remarks to the assembly on Tuesday, saying that they expect matters to be clearer for both sides after the two presidents meet. “Perhaps it would be better that Trump not speak publicly on this subject and that we hear it in the [meeting] room, to understand the direction in which the winds are blowing,” a senior Palestinian official told Haaretz.

*Haaretz