Israel has not given up on plans to apply sovereignty to settlements in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, despite its historic agreement to normalize ties with the United Arab Emirates, former US Special Representative for Middle East Affairs Jason Greenblatt said Tuesday.
Speaking to Army Radio, Greenblatt stressed that the deal calls on Israel to "postpone" its plans to declare sovereignty.
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"We'll deal with the issue of Judea and Samaria later on. I think it [normalization] is a huge diplomatic achievement," he said.
Greenblatt also touched on the issue of the UAE purchasing weapons from the US, and said he did not believe that the US administration would agree to anything that would put Israel in danger.
"It's possible that Israel showed flexibility on a weapons deal with the UAE, but I'm not worried about it," he said.
Top White House adviser Jared Kushner said Monday that the historic deal to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, announced last Thursday, had "largely solved" the volatile issue of the status of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Speaking in a telephone briefing to press, Kushner said that the Mount would remain open to Muslims, who would be allowed to "pray there and see that Al-Aqsa is not in danger, as anti-Semitic propaganda claims."
Kushner said that Jordan was involved in the management of the Temple Mount.
Kushner also said that Washington would not be greenlighting Israel's plans to apply sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and settlements in Judea and Samaria for "some time," and that Israel had agreed not to proceed with the plan until it received approval from the US.
Touching on last week's announcement about the establishment of Israeli-Emirati ties, Kusher said that the Palestinian leadership's credibility had fallen to an "all time low" and that the Trump administration wouldn't "chase" the Palestinians over a peace deal if they continue to reject American overtures.
Kushner said there was rising frustration in the region over what he said was the Palestinians' obstruction of their people's advancement.
"We're not going to chase the Palestinian leadership," Kushner said. "Their credibility is just really falling to an all-time low and even people who want to help the Palestinians, those people are just saying that you can't help people who don't want to help themselves."
Kushner said the world was "starting to block out the noise" coming from Palestinian officials, calling their responses "just so predictable and illogical."
Last week's deal makes the United Arab Emirates just the third Arab country to agree to normalize relations with Israel. The UAE's move shattered a longstanding Arab consensus that official rapprochement with Israel should come only after concessions were made in peacemaking with the Palestinians. That wall of Arab support had long served as one of the Palestinians' few points of leverage against Israel.
Kushner said the Trump administration had been repeatedly rebuffed by the Palestinians despite numerous attempts to try to ameliorate their conditions. He cited a regional economic conference held last year meant to raise funds to better the Palestinian economy, as well as Trump's Middle East plan, which he said gave the Palestinians "most of what they've ever wanted."
Despite his claims, the plan falls far short of Palestinian demands for an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.
The plan envisions giving Israel permanent control over 30% of the West Bank while allowing the Palestinians limited autonomy in the remainder of the territory if they meet a list of stringent demands. Nearly all of east Jerusalem, including its sensitive holy sites, would remain under Israeli control.
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Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, blamed the Trump administration, saying its "negativity" in dealing with the Palestinians "is what brought matters to this impasse." He said the Palestinians were ready to negotiate based on the international consensus calling for a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines.
As part of the UAE deal, Israel agreed to put on hold its plans to annex parts of the West Bank. But the sides' interpretation of what that meant appeared to differ, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the move was on "temporary hold" following a request by the Trump administration, and the UAE indicating it was entirely off the table.
Kushner said he believed the agreement to put off annexation "will hold."
"[Netanyahu] has given us assurances that he will not do it without our consent and that's good enough for us," he said.
Part of this article was originally published by i24NEWS.
