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Formation of U.S.-Israeli Committees Upsets Settlers | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet in the Oval Office. AP


Tel Aviv- With the return of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the U.S. following what he has considered a historic meeting with President Donald Trump, Israel’s rightwing expressed disappointment and concerns over agreements reached between the two sides on settlements, Iran and spy Jonathan Pollard.

Netanyahu informed cabinet ministers that he made several gains in the historic meeting with Trump, mainly through the formation of bilateral committees that will instantly follow up the vital topics.

He added that Trump had the same point of view towards Iran, which seeks to take over the world by force and develop long-range weapons to strike the U.S.

The Israeli PM added that one of the committees will look into his request to lift limitations imposed on Jewish American citizen Jonathan Pollard, who served 30 years in prison for spying for Israel and is barred from leaving the U.S.

Other officials declared that they were deceived for not reaching definite decisions regarding settlements and the two-state solution.

Furthermore, a source from the Likud stated that Netanyahu and Trump have come up with a future settlement plan for the Middle East conflict.

“This plan aims at drawing permanent boundaries for Israel,” the source said.

An Israeli newspaper quoted a high-ranking minister as saying that “the difference between U.S. former president Barack Obama and Trump is that Obama wanted to seal a deal and impose it on Israel unlike Trump who wants to finalize an agreement with Netanyahu and impose it on Palestinians.”

A Netanyahu spokesman denied any backing off from the two-state solution and accused Palestinians of “evading” it “because they are not interested in (achieving) peace and not giving up their racist stance in rejecting that Israel is the state of the Jewish people.”