White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said on Thursday he hopes Israel will take a hard look at President Donald Trump’s upcoming Middle East peace proposal before proceeding with any plan to annex West Bank settlements, Reuters reports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed in the waning days of a re-election campaign he won on April 9 to annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in a move that would be bound to trigger condemnation from the Palestinians and the Arab world and complicate the US peace effort.
Jared Kushner on Middle East peace plan: "People will either react positively to it or they will react negatively to it. But at least people know that we're going to be honest with what we do." https://t.co/e0IM7pcjmT pic.twitter.com/kstVfggdV7
— The Hill (@thehill) May 4, 2019
Kushner, speaking at a dinner of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the Middle East peace proposal he has been putting together was close to release and that Israel and the Palestinians should wait to see it before making any unilateral moves.
He said the issue would be discussed with the Israeli government when Netanyahu forms a governing coalition.
Both sides “have to make compromises,” Kushner says in rare interviewhttps://t.co/qMZT1QCmJz
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) May 4, 2019
Kushner said:
“I hope both sides will take a real look at it, the Israeli side and the Palestinian side, before any unilateral steps are made.”
He added that he had not discussed the issue of settlement annexation with Netanyahu.
Jared Kushner's 'peace plan' will lead to unending conflict. The Gaza vs Israel conflict shows why: Opinion @muhammadshehad2https://t.co/QOkXQ9C0lf
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) May 5, 2019
Kushner and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt have spent the past two years developing the peace proposal in the hopes it will provide a framework for a renewed dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians.
The Palestinians have refused to talk to the US side since Trump decided to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
(Middle East Monitor, PC, Social Media)
