US team meets Mideast officials to discuss peace plan rollout

(photo credit: US EMBASSY)

WASHINGTON – The United States’s peace team – Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the president; Avi Berkowitz, special representative for international negotiation; and Brian Hook, special representative for Iran — is holding a series of meetings with Middle East officials and other relevant leaders to discuss a possible rollout of the US administration peace plan. The three are currently attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, where they are expected to stay until Wednesday, before traveling to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.

Earlier this week, Berkowitz also met with Middle East officials in London to discuss the plan, The Jerusalem Post had learned. The sensitive talks are taking place amid growing speculations that the administration could introduce the deal in the upcoming days. While no decision has been made, it is likely that US President Donald Trump will decide whether to release the plan in the coming days in order to avoid making the announcement too close to Israel’s elections in March.

Gantz, who previously opposed releasing the plan before the elections, flipped his position on Tuesday, saying that he would welcome such a move.

Asked about the possibility that the plan would soon be published, Gantz said, “I hope that [US] President [Donald] Trump will bring this forward and publish the plan,” adding that “several weeks have gone past. In the Middle East, a lot of dramatic things are happening, and I expect the plan will be published.”

Two weeks ago, Gantz said that publication of the plan would be “gross intervention in the election process of the State of Israel.”
The entire peace team, Kushner, Berkowitz and Hook, will arrive in Israel on Wednesday, while dozens of foreign leaders are visiting the country. It was not immediately apparent whom they are expected to meet while in Israel, aside from Netanyahu and Gantz.

It is the second time in the last few weeks that a representative of the peace treaty visit Israel. On January 7, Berkowitz, together with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Residence to discuss the Trump administration’s peace plan. The two also met later with Benny Gantz. The visit marked Berkowitz’s first trip to Israel since he formally succeeded Jason Greenblatt in November.

The US peace team originally planned to roll out the political part of the plan last summer but decided to wait until a new government in Israel was sworn in. Since then, Israel has been experiencing unprecedented political deadlock and now faces a third round of elections.