Kushner to visit Middle East to talk US peace plan

Senior US officials are set to travel to the region next week to further discuss the administration’s forthcoming Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, a senior US official tells The Times of Israel.

The US delegation includes President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner, US special peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, Kushner’s senior aid Avi Berkowitz, and Brian Hook, the administration’s point man on Iran.

They are set to travel to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, the senior official says.

“The purpose of the visit is to follow up on the Bahrain workshop,” the officials says, referring to last month’s “Peace to Prosperity” summit in Manama, during which the administration presented the economic part of its two-pronged peace proposal.

“We would like to finalize the plan’s economic portion, including to discuss the potential placement of the investments,” the official said, referring to the $50 billion investement packaged for the Palestinians and the wider region proposed by the plan.

The delegation’s trip is to be understood as the conclusion of the first stage of the peace plan’s unveiling, but not yet as the overture to the presentation of the political part, the official stresses.

— Raphael Ahren