Donald Trump on Thursday announced his first foreign trip as president will include stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican - the spiritual centers of Islam, Judaism and Catholicism.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir also confirmed that an upcoming visit to the kingdom by U.S. President Donald Trump would enhance cooperation between the United States and Muslim countries in the fight against extremism.
"President Trump has also accepted the invitation of President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to meet with him to discuss ways to advance peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, as well as efforts to unlock the potential of the Palestinian economy".
After leaving the Middle East, the president will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.
"Tolerance is the cornerstone of peace", Mr. Trump said at a ceremony at the White House.
Relations between the pope and Trump suffered a serious blow a year ago when the Republican candidate pledged to build a wall on the U.S.
That had been on the schedule for months, leading to increasing speculation as to why the White House hadn't made arrangements for a Vatican visit, an opportunity no president has missed since Harry Truman.
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The law in question is called the Antiquities Act. "In the case of significant public land use, we feel the public should be considered".
It was stressed that an important part of the trip was Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia.
After the Vatican, Trump will make stops in Brussels and Sicily for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and G-7 meetings.
"A person who thinks only about building walls. and not building bridges, is not Christian", said the pope in February 2016.
Officials in Washington are reporting that the USA and Saudi Arabia are conducting negotiations for a multi-billion-dollar arms deal.
The official said that while "conventional wisdom" would tell you that Trump is "weak on alliances", the president is in fact "strong on alliance", provided allies pay their fair share toward defense.
But people familiar with the trip's planning said it's also meant to demonstrate a new era of American foreign policy in high-octane fashion. Former President Barack Obama visited nine countries by late April 2009, his first three months in office, meeting with allies such as Canada, Britain and Germany. During Trump's campaign for president, the pontiff criticized the Republican candidate's plan to build a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border.
In Israel, Trump will roll up his sleeves and dive into the spadework of brokering an Israel-Palestine peace deal, a task the former reality television host described Wednesday as "not as hard as people have thought", yet which has eluded every modern president. Trump and Francis couldn't be more different in their approaches to some of the pressing issues of the day, with immigration and climate change topping the list.
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