Kushner tells PM that US waiting for more replies from Arab countries, particularly Jordan and Egypt, before moving forward; Qatar says will only support plan Palestinians accept
Israel has yet to receive an official invitation to the US-led economic summit in Bahrain that is just two weeks away, Channel 13 reported Sunday.
The initiative has faced a series of hurdles, mainly the refusal of several Arab states to confirm their attendance.
A senior Israeli official told the news network that during their meeting on May 30, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner explained to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington is waiting for additional “yes” responses before extending an official offer to Israel.
According to Channel 13, the US is particularly on edge to hear back from Egypt and Jordan, two countries which are reported to also be beneficiaries of the billions of dollars in aid that the US is hoping wealthy Gulf states will be willing to pledge at the Bahrain summit on June 25-26.
Netanyahu has told Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon that if and when the invitation from Washington does arrive, the latter would be Israel’s representative at the conference.
The Palestinians have already dismissed US President Donald Trump’s peace plan and said they will not attend the Bahrain summit, rejecting it as heavily biased in favor of Israel.
While Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries have yet to respond to their invitations, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have all announced that they will be making the trip to Bahrain.
But while his country has agreed to participate in the workshop, Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani clarified Sunday that his country would not support any proposed solution to the conflict that the Palestinians do not accept.
“As far as we see, right now there is a disconnect between the Palestinians and the US,” Reuters quoted al-Thani telling reporters in London. “Our position remains very firm: We are going to support any plan that the Palestinians are willing to accept.”
The remarks came just a day after The New York Times published its interview with David Friedman in which the US ambassador to Israel said that some degree of Israeli annexation of the West Bank would be legitimate.
“Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank,” the ambassador asserted.
In a separate interview that aired on HBO last week, Kushner indicated he is uncertain whether the Palestinians can be trusted to govern themselves following a peace agreement with Israel.
Kushner, who is one of the chief architects of Trump’s as-yet-unveiled peace plan, conceded he doesn’t expect the Palestinians to trust him, but claimed that “there is a difference between the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people.”
His remarks came as it was reported that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in private talks last week, acknowledged that parts of the peace plan might be “unexecutable,” could fail, or may be dismissed out of hand by either the Israelis or the Palestinians.
Asked if he believed Palestinians are able to govern themselves without Israeli involvement, Kusher said, “That’s a very good question… The hope is that over time, they can become capable of governing.”
Kushner said Palestinians, who want full statehood, “should have self-determination.” But pressed as to whether, following a peace agreement, the Palestinians would be completely free of Israeli intervention, including military, Kushner indicated he doubted that would happen. Israel wants to maintain control over the border with Jordan, even following a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/two-weeks-out-from-bahrain-summit-israel-said-yet-to-receive-official-invite/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter.