Ramallah - The meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas and and visiting U.S. delegation on Thursday in Ramallah, the West Bank, was "positive," a senior Palestinian official said. The American delegation, which held talks with Abbas at his headquarters, included U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy and top negotiator Jason Greenblatt, son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell. Their Middle East tour includes countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine. Nabil Abu Rdineh, an aide to Abbas, said in an official statement that the meeting was "constructive, deep and positive." "The talks had seriously tackled all in-common issues," said Abu Rdineh, adding "President Abbas reiterated to the delegation the Palestinian political stances, mainly the principle of the two-state solution on 1967 borders and stopping all settlement activities." Abbas aide said the U.S. delegation and President Abbas "agreed to continue their dialogue which aims at reaching a comprehensive and historic peace agreement." According to Abu Rdineh, Abbas stressed on the international resolutions, the signed agreements, the road-map and the Arab peace initiative. At the meeting, Abbas said "the delegation works for peace and we are working together in order to reach soon what President Trump described as a peace deal." "We know that the situation is difficult and complicated, but nothing impossible amid the current good exerted efforts," Abbas said. "We highly appreciate the efforts of President Trump, who announced from the beginning that he will work on a historic peace deal, and repeated this more than once during our meetings in Washington, Riyadh or Bethlehem," Abbas added. For his part, Kushner said "we have been sent today from Washington to talk about a very important subject, peaceful relations between the countries of the region as a whole." "President Trump is very optimistic and hopes for a better future for the Palestinian and Israeli people," Kushner said. "We hope they can work together, live together for many years and have a much better life." The visit by the U.S. delegation encountered demonstrations in Ramallah, where dozens of Palestinians gathered at Al-Manara Square in the center of the city to denounce the visit of the delegation. During the demonstration, which was called by the national and Islamic factions, the demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and signs written in both Arabic and English, rejecting the American "bias" toward Israel. Issam Baker, coordinator of the national and Islamic faction, told Xinhua that the demonstrators stressed on the need not to return to negotiations under US auspices, which has been tried for more than 20 years, while increasing Israel's theft of the Palestinian land and expanding settlement. Baker also said that the Palestinians consider with great interest the international efforts led by China and Russia to demarcate the borders of Palestine, which has been recognized by more than 138 countries. He added that the Palestinians call on permanent members of the UN Security Council to shoulder their responsibility to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
