Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says his first meeting with President Donald Trump has left him hopeful, even though they didn't discuss specifics about how to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Abbas said he believes the Trump administration can play an important role as a mediator.
"What is needed is to bring the two parties together, to bring them closer and then to facilitate things between them," he told reporters after his White House meeting.
Trump also struck an optimistic note Wednesday, saying he believes an Israeli-Palestinian deal can be reached. He did not explain what type of solution he envisions.
Trump pressed Palestinian leaders to "speak in a unified voice against incitement" to violence against Israelis but he stopped short of explicitly recommitting his administration to a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, a longstanding bedrock of US policy.
"We will get this done," Trump told Abbas during a joint appearance at the White House, saying he was prepared to act as mediator, facilitator or arbitrator between the two sides.
The Palestinians want to set up a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Abbas reiterated the demand as he stood next to Trump at the White House.
However, there have been no serious negotiations since gaps widened with the 2009 election of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel's prime minister.
Netanyahu rejects the 1967 frontier as a baseline for border talks and rules out a partition of Jerusalem where Palestinians hope to establish a capital. The Netanyahu government, like those before it, have expanded settlements on war-won lands, despite US appeals to curb construction.
Despite the lack of specifics, Abbas described his meeting with Trump as positive and said that "we build hopes on it."
"So far, we didn't talk about a mechanism, but the contacts between us and the Americans began and will continue," he said.
