White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and other administration officials are headed to the Middle East later this month to brief diplomats in at least five countries on the economic section of a U.S. proposal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Kushner, who is U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, will be joined by U.S. Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt; U.S. envoy on Iran Brian Hook; and other administration officials who have worked on the economic part of the plan. Stops are confirmed in Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Other stops could be added to the trip, according to a White House official.
The plan includes an economic development proposal for Palestinians that foresees major infrastructure and industrial work, particularly in the Gaza Strip. For the plan to succeed or even pass the starting gate, it will need at least an initial buy-in from both Israel and the Palestinians as well as from the Gulf Arab states, which officials say will be asked to substantially bankroll the economic portion.
Also, Kushner is scheduled to participate next Thursday in a discussion in Warsaw to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a senior White House official. During the discussion with World Economic Forum Borge Brende, he is expected to give an update on the peace effort and what the administration hopes to accomplish in the coming weeks and months. In Warsaw, Kushner will also be attending a gathering that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said will focus on Middle East stability and efforts to keep Iran from being a destabilizing influence in the region.
Kushner, who will also be joined by his aide Avi Berkowitz, will not brief the diplomats on the "political component" of the peace plan, which covers all core issues of the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the officials said.
Instead, they will gauge the level of support for the economic part of the plan, which is expected to include a combination of aid and investment to help the Palestinian people, the officials said.
"Jared is going to share elements of the economic plan to the region. The economic plan only works if the region supports it," said one official who briefed a small group of reporters. "This is a very important part of the overall equation."
Officials said they realized that the Arab diplomats Kushner meets will want to know elements of the political component before rendering a judgment on the economic plan.
"They're not going to support the economic plan without making sure they also support the political plan, and we recognize that. So the support, I'm sure in some manner, will be conditioned on whether they are comfortable with the political plan," one official said.
Release of the Trump peace plan was delayed after Palestinians erupted in anger when Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017.
The current thinking among White House officials is that the peace plan will be unveiled sometime after Israel holds elections on April 9 that will decide the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It is unclear how the U.S. plan would deal with the sensitive issue of Jerusalem. Palestinians want the city's eastern part as their future capital. Kushner is not visiting Israel on this trip, the officials said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to talk about any peace plan with the United States in the wake of Trump's recognition of Jerusalem, but White House officials hope that will change.
"We hope Abbas reads the plan, judges it on its merits, and comes to the table for negotiations after we release the plan. His people deserve nothing less," one official said.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, have been meeting with Palestinians "from all walks of life" to keep lines of communication open, the official said.
