White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and special envoy Jason Greenblatt are scheduled to visit Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia next week as President Trump’s Middle East peace team continue working on an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, a new report says.
Kushner and Greenblatt are planning to discuss topics including when the peace plan should be released and any outstanding questions as the plan moves through the final stages, Axios reports.
The two are not currently scheduled to meet with Palestinian officials, who have declined to meet after the U.S. moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May.
“The peace team didn’t ask for a meeting [with the Palestinians] for this trip,” a senior U.S. official said, per Axios. “The Palestinian leadership will know Kushner and Greenblatt are in the region and if the Palestinian leadership wants to meet, Kushner and Greenblatt are ready to meet.”
“The administration wants to launch the plan when the circumstances are right, and Kushner and Greenblatt want to hear the parties’ thoughts on that,” the official added. “The administration has not set a date yet for launching the plan.”
[Opinion: When it comes to Middle East peace, things are getting worse, not better]
The trip comes as U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is in D.C. this week. According to the official, Friedman was not called to discuss the peace plan, but instead wanted to speak to Kushner and Greenblatt ahead of their trip to the Middle East.
“Ambassador Friedman wanted to catch up with Kushner and Greenblatt before they head to the region,” the U.S. official confirmed.
Kushner was present at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, where he praised the possibility of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process despite the mass protests that had just occurred in Gaza and took the lives of dozens of Palestinians.
“Those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution,” Kushner said at the embassy dedication. “We believe that it is possible for both sides to gain more than they give so that all people can live in peace, safe from danger, free from fear, and able to pursue their dreams.”
