Trump aide Greenblatt returning to Israel for peace talks: official

[September 25, 2017]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's Middle East peace negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, is returning to Israel to "continue the peace track" after the president met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last week in New York, a White House official said on Sunday.

Jason Greenblatt (C), U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, arrives to visit Kibbutz Nahal Oz, just outside the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

"While President Trump had productive meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas at the United Nations, we always said that the UN would not focus on peace conversations and that those conversations would be happening on a separate track," the official said in a statement.

"(Greenblatt) will have follow-up meetings in advance of a private trip in the region with his family for Sukkot. The meetings are part of the Administration's quiet, steady discussions toward peace," he said.

Sukkot is a Jewish holiday.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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