Biden meets with Palestinian leaders ahead of Saudi visit

US President Joe Biden is due to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Friday, with talks expected to focus on economic measures but without any major diplomatic breakthrough.

Bethlehem is the last stop on Biden’s Middle East tour, after meetings with Israeli officials and before a visit to Saudi Arabia.

As Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have stalled since 2014, a US official said the delegation will make “some significant announcements…like improving the economic opportunities of the Palestinians.”

The US delegation will unveil plans to roll out infrastructure for faster 4G internet throughout Gaza and the West Bank by the end of next year, fulfilling a long-standing wish from Palestinians as some of their Israeli neighbors are already using 5G networks.

Biden will also announce a “significant funding package” for hospitals in Israel-annexed East Jerusalem, the US official said Wednesday, which has broad support from the Palestinian people.

The US President is scheduled to visit one of these hospitals before his meeting with Abbas, unaccompanied by Israeli officials.

But Biden made it clear Thursday that he has no plans to reverse his predecessor Donald Trump’s controversial move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, infuriating Palestinians who see its eastern sector as the seat of their future state.

As Israel bans Palestinians from political activities in Jerusalem, the US President will travel to Bethlehem to meet Abbas.

The Palestinian president has been in office since 2005 and called off elections last year, accusing Israeli officials of allegedly refusing to guarantee voting in East Jerusalem.

Biden on Thursday reiterated Washington’s support for “a two-state solution for two people who both have deep and ancient roots in this country and live side by side in peace and security.”

While Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said he ultimately supports a two-state solution, the acting leader is unlikely to take any steps toward a peace deal before November’s elections.

The Israeli government has recently adopted an approach known as “conflict shrinkage,” taking economic measures such as increasing the number of permits for Palestinians to work in Israel.

The World Bank put the poverty rate in the Palestinian Territories at 27 percent last year and said in April the outlook “remains uncertain and is subject to additional political and security risks.”

Finding a lasting solution to the decades-long conflict, however, was not the top priority of Biden’s meeting with Lapid in Jerusalem.

The talks on Thursday focused on Iran’s nuclear program and its support for Islamist groups such as Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.

Biden and Lapid signed a new security pact in which Washington pledged to use all of its “national power” to ensure Tehran would not acquire nuclear weapons.

Washington is currently trying to get the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers back on track after it was derailed by Trump’s withdrawal of US support in 2018.

After the West Bank visit, Biden will fly from Israel to Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia.

It will be the first publicly recognized direct flight from Tel Aviv to the Gulf Kingdom, which does not recognize Israel.

In an apparent gesture of openness to the Jewish state ahead of Biden’s arrival, Saudi Arabia announced early Friday that it would lift restrictions on “all airlines” using its airspace.

Riyadh’s move effectively suspends overflight restrictions on planes traveling to and from Israel.

Saudi Arabia has long stressed its commitment to the Arab League’s decades-old position of not establishing official ties with Israel until the conflict with the Palestinians is resolved.

The US president is expected to meet with Arab leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council who are meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah to discuss volatile oil prices.