President Donald Trump. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – President Donald Trump is set to host Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas next month at the White House, as the US leader seeks to mediate an historic peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.

“They will use the [May 3] visit to reaffirm the commitment of both the United States and Palestinian leadership to pursuing and ultimately concluding a conflict-ending settlement between the Palestinians and Israel,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on Wednesday.

Trump and Abbas spoke by phone last month, at which point the PA leader was invited to Washington. Later, Abbas met in Ramallah with Trump’s special envoy for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, where they discussed the possibility of a Trump-led deal.

Direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have been stalled since 2014.

During his White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February, Trump broke decades-long US foreign policy tradition and expressed openness to conflict resolutions beyond the much touted two-state solution.

“I’m looking at two state and one state, and I like the one that both parties like…I can live with either one,” Trump said at the time.