Trump pitches 21-point plan for Middle East peace
Special envoy Steve Witkoff said he's hopeful, even confident, that there will be a breakthrough in the coming days.
NEW YORK CITY — President Donald Trump has presented Middle East leaders with a 21-point plan for peace in the region, his envoy said Wednesday.
Speaking at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, US special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff described a “very productive” meeting Tuesday between Trump and officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan.
“We presented what we call the Trump 21-point plan for peace in the Middle East,” Witkoff said. “I think it addresses Israeli concerns as well as concerns of neighbors in the region.”
Earlier this year, Arab states led by Egypt put forward their own postwar plan for the Palestinian enclave that excluded Hamas from holding power. They rushed to devise a plan of their own after Trump in February suggested that the United States take control of Gaza and displace its population of some two million people.
Trump met with Arab and Muslim leaders after using his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to call for renewed negotiations to end the war in the Gaza Strip. The US-backed indirect talks between Hamas and Israel broke down after Israel conducted an airstrike on Sept. 9 targeting the militants’ negotiating team in the Qatari capital of Doha. Qatar is reportedly seeking guarantees that Israel will not carry out further strikes before it resumes its role as mediator.
“We’re hopeful — and I might say even confident — that in the coming days we’ll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough,” Witkoff added.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Trump also assured participants that he would not allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank as threatened by far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, according to two diplomats briefed on the meeting.
Netanyahu is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Friday after a wave of countries formally recognized Palestinian statehood in hopes of pressuring Israel into ending the war in Gaza. The Israeli premier has vowed to retaliate, describing the statehood announcements as a gift to Hamas.
