Three Trump administration officials will soon travel to the Middle East to try brokering peace between Israel and Palestine, the White House announced Friday.
White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, and Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell will meet leaders from the region, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority.
“As President Donald J. Trump has clearly stated, he is personally committed to achieving a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians that would help usher in an era of greater regional peace and prosperity,” a senior White House official said in a statement. “He believes that the restoration of calm and the stabilized situation in Jerusalem after the recent crisis on the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif has created an opportunity to continue discussions and the pursuit of peace that began early in his administration.”
Tensions between Israel and Palestine were inflamed in recent weeks after three Arabs stormed the Temple Mount, killing two Israeli police officers. The Israeli government responded by tightening security around the Temple Mount complex, installing metal detectors at the entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque at its center.
In return, Palestine’s Fatah political party declared a “Day of Rage,” and Palestinian protesters violently clashed with Israeli police. Israel subsequently removed the metal detectors, but Palestine has not called off the protests. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas last week called Jerusalem “Palestine’s eternal capital city.”
The White House official added that the president has directed the discussions to “focus on the path to substantive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, combatting extremism, the situation in Gaza, including how to ease the humanitarian crisis there, strengthening our relations with regional partners and the economic steps that can be taken both now and after a peace deal is signed to ensure security, stability and prosperity for the region.”
Kushner traveled to the Middle East in June to meet with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. U.S. officials said at the time that Kushner and Greenblatt were likely to return often.
