President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner says he doubts whether Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has the ability and the willingness to make a peace deal with Israel.
“He has his talking points which have not changed in the last 25 years. There has been no peace deal achieved in that time,” Kushner said in an interview published in Palestinian newspaper Al Quds.
Kushner also said the Trump administration is “almost done” with an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that has been created without any input from the Palestinians.
Kushner and U.S. envoy Jason Greenblatt held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and Saturday. Before meeting with Nentanyahu , the two men visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.
Kushner said the Arab leaders are in favor of a Palestinian state.
Abbas has not seen Kushner and Greenblatt, following Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his decision to move the U.S. embassy there.
The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as their future capital.They insist the status of the disputed city is an issue to be negotiated between them and the Israelis.
“If President Abbas is willing to come back to the table,” Kushner said, we are ready to engage; if he is not, we will likely air the plan publicly.”
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