INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Morocco King Mohammed VI hosting Iftar in honour of Jared Kushner.Morocco King Mohammed VI hosting Iftar in honour of Jared Kushner.US: US
President Donald Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is visiting the Middle East, the White House said Tuesday, signaling a fresh push on a long
promised but yet to be delivered peace plan for the region.
The trip comes amid a flurry of other administration moves to shore up
alliances with Arab allies against Iran and the deployment of warships and bombers to the region
Kushner is accompanied by Jason Greenblatt, Trump special representative for international negotiations, and Brian Hook, the special US
representative for Iran, the White House said.
They &will travel from May 27 to May 31 to Rabat, Amman and Jerusalem,& a White House
official said on condition of anonymity
The pair shared an iftar dinner -- the traditional meal to break the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan -- with Morocco King
Mohammed VI, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan and Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.
&Thank you to His Majesty for a special evening and for
sharing your wisdom,& Greenblatt tweeted
&Morocco is an important friend ally of the United States.& The Trump administration is expected to unveil the peace plan -- after numerous
failures by its predecessors -- possibly as early as next month, but the Palestinians have already rejected it as heavily biased in favor of
Israel.
Washington has yet to commit to an exact timetable with respect to the political aspects of the plan.Kushner is the chief architect
of the proposals and Greenblatt, a longtime Trump lawyer, has served as his right-hand man on the Middle East initiative
Upon his arrival in the White House more than two years ago, Trump proclaimed his ambition to secure a final accord ending the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But the odds of his succeeding where every previous US president -- Republicans as well as Democrats -- have
failed appear particularly low
Palestinians have boycotted the process since Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017.
The US is expected to
roll out the economic aspects of the peace plan at a conference in Bahrain on June 25-26
Co-hosts US and Bahrain have billed it as &a pivotal opportunity to share ideas, discuss strategies and galvanize support for potential
economic investments and initiatives that could be made possible by a peace agreement.& But Palestinian political leaders say they will
boycott it and Palestinian business leaders said they won&t go either, raising further questions about the plan viability.
&Any economic
project without a political solution is selling an illusion,& said Arafat Asfour, chairman of the Palestine Trade Center.Among those
declining an invitation was Bashar al-Masri, a high-profile Palestinian businessman who worked with international partners and in
cooperation with the Israelis to invest $1.4 billion in the new Palestinian town of Rawabi.
Kushner, who will join up with Trump in London
after going to the Middle East, has been evasive about the US plan, which has been shrouded in secrecy.While promising new ideas to revive a
moribund peace process, he has refused to talk about a two-state solution, the formula that has long been at the heart of international
efforts to achieve peace and also the official US position.
Instead, he has looked to an alliance with the Saudis against Iran as a way to
gain Arab support for his plan
Three days before Kushner trip, Trump authorized $8.1 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies, bypassing Congress.
Arms
sales to the kingdom were frozen after the assassination of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in October and in response to mounting concerns
over the human toll of a Saudi-led armed campaign in Yemen
