US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of a regional tour to push for a controversial US plan on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. RNA - Netanyahu and Kushner met in Jerusalem al-Quds on Wednesday, according to a statement by the Israeli premier’s office.
The meeting was attended also by US Middle East special envoy, Jason Greenblatt, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Israel’s Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer.
No further details on the meeting were revealed, but the Chinese official Xinhua news agency cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that the meeting focused on advancing the Trump administration’s “peace” plan dubbed as the “deal of the century.”
The economic portion of Trump’s deal, which would inject $50 billion into struggling economies in the Middle East over the next ten years, was unveiled in June by Kushner during a conference in Bahrain.
All Palestinian factions have boycotted the event, slamming Washington for what they view as an attempt to offer financial rewards for Palestinians to accept the Israeli occupation.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kushner arrived in Jordan for a meeting with King Abdullah II, who acts as the custodian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem al-Quds.
King Abdullah told Kushner that any solution for the conflict must insure “the establishment of an independent Palestinian state... with east Jerusalem [al-Quds] as its capital, living in peace and security alongside Israel.”
The US team is expected to leave the occupied territories on Thursday for Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia to discuss the details of the proposal with Arab leaders.
On Wednesday, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Kushner is trying to convene a diplomatic summit with the attendance of representatives from Arab countries at Camp David even before Israeli election in September in order to present the broad strokes of the so-called peace plan.
The newspaper, which characterized the plan as an “election gift” to Netanyahu, said that the premier and ambassador Dermer were involved in the planning, even though Netanyahu would not be invited, so as to make participation for the Arab leaders easier.
The White House said that “no summit has currently been planned.”
The Palestinians have already rejected as “the slap of the century” Trump’s Middle East initiative, which is widely reported to be highly biased in favor of the Israeli regime.
The Washington Post said in April that the plan is likely to “stop short of ensuring a separate, fully sovereign Palestinian state.”
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