But by recognizing Israel’s claim to Jerusalem, Trump was seen by the Palestinians as siding with Israel on the most sensitive issue in the conflict. Trump’s Mideast peace team had held meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders for nearly a year ahead of an expected peace proposal. Trump on Tuesday also issued a threat to cut off foreign aid dollars to an unspecified list of countries that don’t reciprocate. The officials said one possibility would be to redirect aid from the Palestinian Authority to those groups. One basket of money that is unlikely to be affected is security assistance that helps the Palestinian Authority co-ordinate police co-operation with Israel, the officials said.

Source: thestar January 02, 2018 23:24 UTC