Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, appears to have rejected the two-state solution, telling an interviewer at the roll-out of the economic portion of long-awaited “peace plan” that “if there ever is a deal, it’s not going to be along the lines of the Arab Peace Initiative”.
Mr Kushner, who was in Bahrain for the launch of his “Peace to Prosperity Workshop”, suggested to the Al Jazeera news network that America would no longer be supporting the initiative, originally put forward by Saudi Arabia in 2002 as a way to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.
He told the network that any future deal “will be somewhere between the initiative and the Israeli position”.
The Arab Peace Initiative calls on Israel to carry out “a complete withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the 4 June 1967 line”, “Attain a just solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees to be agreed upon in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution No 194” and “Accept the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since 4 June 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
In return, Arab states would “consider the Arab–Israeli conflict over, sign a peace agreement with Israel, and achieve peace for all states in the region”, as well as “establish normal relations with Israel within the framework of this comprehensive peace.”
Mr Kushner’s comments come amid already heightened suspicions concerning the political portion of his proposed Middle East Plan. So far only the economic elements of his plan have been unveiled, involving a proposed $50 billion plan to boost the Palestinian economy and the economies of surrounding Arab states.
The Palestinians, however, have boycotted Mr Kushner’s Bahrain workshop, pointing to Mr Trump’s move of the American embassy to Jerusalem, his official recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and his cutting of funding to UNWRA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, as signs that the administration is predisposed towards a deal that overwhelmingly favours Israel.
