Kushner Says Saudis Will Welcome Concepts in Trump Peace Plan
Kushner Says Saudis Will Welcome Concepts in Trump Peace Plan
(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia shares common goals with Israel and its leadership will approve of much of Donald Trump’s peace plan unveiled on Tuesday, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner said in an interview.
Like Israel, the Saudis view Iran and Islamic militant groups as their primary threat, and it’s in their interest to solve the regional conflict with Israel, Kushner, who is close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said in the interview on Tuesday with Bloomberg Television.
“The Saudis don’t have any issues with the Israelis,” Kushner, a chief architect of the peace proposal, said. “Israel is hated by Iran. Saudis are hated by Iran. They have a common enemy and we’ve been able to hopefully bring the countries close together on that.”
Kushner appeared to overstate the ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel. The kingdom has no diplomatic relations with Israel and bans flights between the nations. Saudi royals, particularly the king, are mindful that their public is still pro-Palestinian and that normalizing ties with Israel risks causing a backlash in the kingdom despite sharing Iran as a common enemy.
On Tuesday, the Saudis refrained from praising or criticizing the plan, simply acknowledging that they reviewed the proposal while urging both sides to start direct negotiations under U.S. auspices.
“The Kingdom appreciate the efforts of President Trump’s Administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and Israeli sides,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry posted on Twitter.
Nevertheless, Kushner said, the Saudis will like “a lot of the concepts that are in this plan and I do think that they see it’s in Saudi Arabia’s interest to have this conflict ended.” The Palestinian issue is a “big issue with the leadership in Saudi Arabia,” he said, and “they’ve been very, very supportive of trying to create a Palestinian state.”
Securing support from the wider Arab world is key for Trump’s plan to have any chance of gaining traction after Palestinians quickly rejected it as too favorable to Israel. Trump announced what he called a detailed plan for Middle East peace that provides a “win-win” solution to make Israel and the region safer.
Trump said Tuesday his plan presents a “contiguous” territory for a Palestinian state once conditions are met, including “rejection of terrorism.” Besides the Palestinian Authority, objections to the plan emerged from countries including Jordan and Turkey, both U.S. allies.
“The so-called U.S. peace plan is stillborn,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Tuesday. “This is an annexation plan aiming to destroy the two-state solution and seize the Palestinian territories.
Egypt, another key Arab ally, didn’t immediately reject the proposal on Tuesday, calling on both sides to study it and resume U.S.-sponsored talks. And in a sign of shifting geopolitical trends in the region, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman sent their envoys to the White House event with Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.
Trump previously broke with international convention on the Middle East by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, recognizing Israel sovereignty over a portion of the Golan Heights and proclaiming that Israeli settlements in the West Bank aren’t necessarily illegal, measures all supported by Netanyahu.
The administration has also cut off most U.S. aid to the Palestinians and closed the Palestine Liberation Organization’s diplomatic mission in Washington.
--With assistance from Onur Ant and Glen Carey.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kevin Cirilli in Washington at kcirilli@bloomberg.net;David Wainer in New York at dwainer3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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