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President Reuven Rivlin told reporters on Wednesday that, during his meeting at the White House with U.S. President Barack Obama, the American president expressed concern over the future of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, in light of the disconnect with Israel.
"The president expressed his concern and his uncompromising commitment to Israel," Rivlin was quoted by Haaretz as having said during a press briefing at the White House after the two leaders participated in a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony following their meeting.
Rivlin said Obama "expressed great concern" over the stalemate between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
"He sees the disconnect as unproductive, but he did not seem optimistic about the possibility of restarting dialogue with the Palestinians,” said Rivlin, who added he told Obama that he believes there is a need to renew the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.
"I told him that maybe it should be done in stages, and maybe we should discuss [the possibility of] an interim period."
The president said that his American counterpart did not appear optimistic about the possibility of bridging the gap between Israel and the Palestinians, adding Obama "expressed his concern over the future to come, and the future of Abbas."
"The Americans can help, but they see little chance to renew the talks. The president agreed with me that the building of trust is required. They will check if each side (Israel and the Palestinians) can make gestures that could bring the two nations closer and the result could be the renewal of negotiations,” he said, according to Haaretz.
In recent days, the Americans have been expressing concerns over the fate of Abbas and the PA, as well as over the stalled peace process with the PA. The last round of peace talks in 2014 ended when the PA unilaterally applied to join international institutions in breach of the conditions of the talks.
Those concerns were reflected last weekend, when Secretary of State John Kerry warned at the Saban Forum that the PA might collapse, and called on Israel to “do more to help sustain it".
The next day, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned at the same forum that if the PA were to collapse, Abbas could be replaced with the black flags of the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
Despite these comments, officials in the Obama administration recently admitted that reaching a peace agreement before Obama’s term expires is unlikely.
Meanwhile, Abbas has refused to resume talks with Israel and has continuously imposed new preconditions on talks, even after Netanyahu declared he was willing to meet with him.
Furthermore, Abbas himself recently admitted to Israeli television that he rejected "out of hand" an offer from former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for a PA state on nearly 95% of Judea and Samaria.