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Trump casts doubt on Middle East peace talks | Trump casts doubt on Middle East peace talks |
(35 minutes later) | |
US President Donald Trump has questioned whether peace talks with Israel will ever resume, blaming the Palestinians. | US President Donald Trump has questioned whether peace talks with Israel will ever resume, blaming the Palestinians. |
Mr Trump said Palestinians had "disrespected" the US in the wake of his controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. | Mr Trump said Palestinians had "disrespected" the US in the wake of his controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. |
"Respect has to be shown to the US or we're just not going any further," he told reporters at Davos. | "Respect has to be shown to the US or we're just not going any further," he told reporters at Davos. |
The Palestinians say the US can no longer be considered a neutral broker. | The Palestinians say the US can no longer be considered a neutral broker. |
President Mahmoud Abbas has called Mr Trump's declaration on Jerusalem in December the "slap of the century". | President Mahmoud Abbas has called Mr Trump's declaration on Jerusalem in December the "slap of the century". |
However, sitting alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum, Mr Trump said: "Israel has always supported the United States so what I did with Jerusalem was my honour. | |
"We took Jerusalem off the [negotiating] table, so we don't have to talk about it any more. They [the Palestinians] never got past Jerusalem." | |
Turning to Mr Netanyahu, Mr Trump said: "You won one point, and you'll give up some points later on in the negotiation, if it ever takes place - I don't know that it will ever take place." | |
The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. | |
Israel regards Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided" capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war - as the capital of a future state. | |
Mr Trump's recognition of the city as Israel's capital broke with decades of a US policy of neutrality on the issue and put it out of step with the rest of the international community. | |
Funds withheld | |
Mr Trump said he stood by his recent decision to withhold more than half of a $125m (£90m) instalment the US planned to pay the UN relief agency for the Palestinians, a move which was denounced by the Palestinians as blackmail. | |
"We give them [the Palestinians] hundreds of millions of dollars a year - that is on the table - why should we do something for them when they do nothing for us?" Mr Trump asked. | |
"I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace and they're [the Palestinians] going to have to want to make peace too or we're going to have nothing to do with it any longer." | |
Washington has been developing a new framework for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, but President Abbas has said he will no longer accept any plan proposed by the US. | |
Mr Trump also accused the Palestinians of having "disrespected our great Vice-President" Mike Pence, when they refused to meet him when he visited the region earlier this week. | |
The US president has previously spoken of his desire to achieve the "ultimate deal" of bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians. | |
The last round of on-off peace talks between the two sides collapsed amid acrimony in April 2014. |