Trump announces first official foreign trip to include Israel.
U.S. President Donald Trump has officially announced he will visit Israel as part of his first foreign trip since his inauguration in January.U.S. press secretary Sean Spicer issued a statement saying, “The leaders will discuss a range of regional issues, including the need to counter the threats posed by Iran and its proxies, and by ISIS and other terrorist groups. They will also discuss ways to advance a genuine and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians”. Officials said Trump would meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but declined to say where, and said dates and other details would be provided later. Trump’s visit will come ahead of Israel’s Jerusalem Day celebrations on May 24.A presidential waiver suspending the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is set to expire on June 1. Trump must decide by then whether to fulfill his campaign promise to relocate the embassy, thereby officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, or follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and renew the waiver. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, had a testy relationship with both Israel and Saudi Arabia, whose leaders viewed him as being concerned less with traditional alliances than with negotiating a diplomatic agreement with Iran, which both Israel and Saudi Arabia view as an enemy. Trump’s foreign visit appears to be aimed at reinvigorating traditional alliances in the region.