US must play ‘preeminent’ role as peace broker: Pence

Bloomberg

US Vice President Mike Pence said the US should retain its dominant role as mediator of the Israeli-Palestinian conf-lict, rebuffing Palestinian appeals to the European Union to take the reins.
“The United States has played a historic role in this region to pursue and promote peace, and I think the United States should continue to play a preeminent role,” Pence said on Tuesday in an interview
in Jerusalem. “But it’s going to require the Palestinians to
return to the table.”
The Trump administration still intends to propose a Mideast peace plan this year even though its mediators are “hitting a bump right now,” said a White House official familiar with the discussi-
ons, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
Palestinians say President Donald Trump’s Dec 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — a theme Pence invoked multiple times during his visit — disqualifies the US as a peace broker.
As Pence was telling Israeli legislators that the US
will move its embassy to Jerusalem next year, Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas was in Brussels urging the European Union to recognise a Palestinian state and emerge as an alternative sponsor of Middle East diplomacy.
The Palestinians seek the eastern part of Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, as capital of a future state, and see Trump’s declaration as proof of Washington’s bias.
They have cut off cont-
act with US officials and refused to receive Pence during his trip.