Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and his US counterpart Donald Trump agreed on holding a peace conference to resume Israeli-Palestinian long-stalled peace talks this summer in Washington, well-informed sources revealed Tuesday. Sisi, who is currently on his first-ever official visit to the White House since assuming office in 2014, said in a joint press conference, "The Arab nations want a comprehensive and just solution based on the Arab Peace Initiative". The initiative, also known as the Saudi Initiative, was first launched at the Beirut Arab League in 2002. The 10 sentence proposal was re-endorsed at the 2007 Arab League summit and at the 2017 Arab League summit in Jordan. Sisi also told Trump he opposes US plans to move its embassy to the occupied Jerusalem. The Egyptian president, whose visit will last five days, met earlier on Tuesday the Jordanian King, Abdullah II, who is also visiting the United States. Both sides discussed the mechanisms to get the recommendations of the 28th Arab League summit, including resuming peace talks, implemented. Egypt's Former Assistant Foreign Minister, Hussein Hareedy told Al Bawaba News by phone the Sisi-Trump summit would give a boost to the stalled Middle East peace talks. The talks between Israelis and the Palestinian Authority reached a deadlock in 2014. Press reports claimed Monday the two sides had held confidential talks in London in late 2016. But a spokesman for the PA dismissed the reports as "baseless". Hareedy added a summit between Trump and PA leader, Mahmoud Abbas in mid-April in Washington shows a true US interest to solve the crisis. The US Administration relies on Egypt and Jordan to bring the Palestinians back to negotiations table. "We expect an initiative from Trump to be launched in the near future to push ahead peace talks in the Middle East," Hareedy concluded.
