US President Donald Trump. Photo:Xinhua

 
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would unveil the long-awaited Middle East peace plan before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington on next Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he would release the plan before his meeting with Netanyahu. "Sometime prior to that," Trump said. "Probably we'll release it a little bit prior to that."

Trump also said Palestinians might react negatively to the plan at first, but that "it's actually very positive for them."

The White House earlier in the day said Netanyahu's visit "is an opportunity to discuss our shared regional and national security interests."

Benjamin Gantz, chairman of Israeli political alliance Blue and White and elections rival of Netanyahu, also accepted Trump's invitation to come to Washington, according to the White House.

US media reported that the long-awaited Middle East peace plan might be a political boost for Trump and Netanyahu, both of whom currently underwent political turmoil at home.

Trump has postponed several times the publication of his "Deal of the Century" for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The economic portion of Trump's peace plan was unveiled during a US-led conference in Bahrain last June, a convention boycotted by the Palestinians.

The Trump administration has reversed decades of US policy regarding the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Political ties between Palestine and the United States have been severed right after Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017 and moved the US embassy to the city in 2018.

In November 2019, Washington announced that it would no longer consider Israel's West Bank settlements "inconsistent" with international law, a move which further dimmed the future of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.