White House senior advisor Jared Kushner has on Thursday said he hopes Israel will look at US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace effort plan before moving forward with its plan to annex West Bank.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged, during the re-election campaign which he won on April 9, to annex Israel’s settlements in the captured West Bank, a move that would raise strong condemnation from the Arab world and Palestinians and complicate the US peace efforts.
According to Reuters news reports, Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, while speaking during a discussion on “Inside the Trump Administration’s Middle East Peace Effort” in Washington DC, stated Trump’s Middle East peace plan was close to release and that the Palestinians and Israel should wait before making any unilateral actions.
Kushner said the issue would be discussed with the government of Israel once Netanyahu creates a governing coalition.
“I hope both sides will take a real look at it, the Israeli side and the Palestinian side, before any unilateral steps are made,” Kushner said, adding he had not discussed the issue of settlement annexation with Netanyahu yet.
The Middle East special representative Jason Greenblatt and Kushner have spent two years to study, analyse, and develop a peace proposal in hopes that it will offer a framework for a renewed talks between Palestinians and Israelis.
“What we will be able to put together is a solution that we believe is a good starting point for the political issues and then an outline for what can be done to help these people start living a better life,” Kushner said.
Ever since the US president has moved the American embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Palestinians have reiterated their refusal to hold dialogues with the US.
Palestine wanted to establish a state in the east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and West Bank – territories captured by Israel in 1967 during the civil war.
Kushner is also expected to unveil the peace proposal in June after the end of Muslim’s holy month of Ramadan.