Trump and Kushner Push Mideast Peace Plan Out Again
TEL AVIV — President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser said in an interview published Sunday that the assistants volition soon present its Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, with or without input from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In an interview published in the Standard arabic linguistic communication Al-Quds newspaper, Jared Kushner appealed direct to Palestinians and criticized Abbas, who has shunned the Trump team over its alleged pro-State of israel bias, particularly on the fate of contested Jerusalem.
The interview came out after a weeklong trip around the region past Kushner and Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt. The team met with leaders of Israel, Hashemite kingdom of jordan, Qatar, Egypt and Kingdom of saudi arabia to hash out the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and the administration'south proposals for a peace deal.
Palestinian leaders accept blasted the Trump negotiating team in recent days.
It remains unclear how the U.Due south. would continue with a peace plan without Palestinian cooperation.
Kushner said the plan is "almost done," just offered scant details bated from the promise of economic prosperity. He fabricated no mention of a Palestinian state arising alongside Israel, though he best-selling that Arab partners back up that goal.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Kushner and Greenblatt on Saturday of trying to topple the Abbas-led West Bank autonomy government and dismantle the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees. On Sunday, Erekat doubled down on his criticism, dismissing the American negotiators equally biased and predicting their peace plan would fail.
"Kushner'southward interview once again illustrates the U.S. refusal to talk substance, to mention Palestinian rights or a Palestinian state," Erekat told NBC News in a statement released by his function. "This is an attempt to button frontward a programme that consolidates Israel'south colonial control over Palestinian land and lives while telling the Palestinian people that money will compensate for our inalienable rights."
"Kushner represents a policy of dictation rather than negotiations," he added. "It is the Trump Administration that has walked away from the negotiations, from international law and U.N. resolutions."
Any peace plan would face major obstacles, including the increasingly dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, internal Palestinian divisions and recent cross-border violence between Gaza's Hamas rulers and State of israel.
Israeli Prime number Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sun that he met twice with Kushner and Greenblatt this weekend and discussed the peace process, regional problems and "how to solve the humanitarian situation in Gaza without strengthening Hamas."
"I must say that there was total back up for our positions and actions to ensure the security of the Country of Israel," Netanyahu said.
"I expressed great appreciation to President Trump, Secretary of State Pompeo and, of course, Administrator Haley for the continuous and strong support at the U.Due north., which is truly very impressive."
Kushner's remarks to Al Quds, in what the paper billed as his showtime newspaper interview on the administration's Middle Due east initiative, highlighted the Trump administration's attempts to evangelize a message directly to the Palestinian people.
Palestinian leaders have refused to meet with the Trump team since the president's decision in Dec to recognize Jerusalem equally the capital of Israel and to move the U.S. Embassy there.
Jerusalem is an emotional upshot at the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian disharmonize. Israel captured the metropolis's eastern half, home to holy sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it. Palestinians seek due east Jerusalem as capital of a future state.
Kushner cast uncertainty on Abbas' ability to make a deal, alleging that the Palestinian leadership is "scared nosotros will release our peace program and the Palestinian people volition actually like it" because it would offer them a amend life.
"The global community is getting frustrated with Palestinian leadership and not seeing many deportment that are effective toward achieving peace," Kushner said. "At that place are a lot of sharp statements and condemnations, but no ideas or efforts with prospects of success."
"If President Abbas is willing to come up back to the table, we are gear up to engage; if he is not, we volition likely air the plan publicly," Kushner said.
The Trump administration has previously threatened to cut off assistance to the Palestinians if they refuse to "sit down down and discuss peace."
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh responded to Kushner's interview by restating that American efforts volition yield no issue if they bypass the Palestinian leadership and if they are not aimed at an independent Palestinian country with east Jerusalem as its uppercase.
Trump'south "deal of the century" is expected to propose detailed solutions to core issues in dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians, such as borders, the future of Israeli settlements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and security.
Asked by Al Quds editor-in-main Walid Abu-Zalaf how his programme differs from those that came earlier, Kushner said he and his squad had "spent a lot of time listening and focusing on the people."
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kushner-says-will-publish-trump-s-mideast-peace-plan-soon-n886096
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