Trump envoy meets Netanyahu as tensions simmer

US President Donald Trump's chief negotiator Jason Greenblatt met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today as part of the administration's efforts to advance peace, the American official said.
The meeting took place as tensions with the international community and the Palestinians remained high in the wake of Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The Palestinians said the move disqualified the United States from its historic role as peace broker with the Israelis.
Greenblatt was accompanied by US ambassador to Israel David Friedman in what the peace negotiator called in a Tweet "a check-in as the Administration continues with its peace efforts which will benefit both Israelis and Palestinians."

Officials from Netanyahu's office offered no further information on the meeting.
Yesterday, Greenblatt met with the European Union's special representative for the Middle East, Fernando Gentilini, as well as with Israeli Major General Yoav Mordechai, head of the COGAT defence ministry unit responsible for activities in the Palestinian territories, the US envoy said on Twitter.

Greenblatt is a key member of a small team appointed by Trump who have been holding meetings in the region for months as part of the efforts to relaunch the moribund diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Greenblatt's visit to Israel was meant to precede that of Vice President Mike Pence, who was due to arrive on Wednesday but postponed the trip to January, citing a need to attend a crucial Senate vote in Washington.

Trump's December 6 announcement was a break with decades of American policy and sparked almost universal diplomatic condemnation and deadly protests in the Palestinian territories, with Israel praising the "historic" move.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Palestinian officials would not meet US political officials, and called on China and Russia to take a greater role in creating a peace process instead.
Abbas himself was meanwhile received in Saudi Arabia by King Salman today, where the monarch pledged his country's support for east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.