Arab leaders ready to bypass Abbas to push Trump’s peace plan
Arab nations will be ready to back Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative with or without the cooperation of the Palestinian president.
June 25, 2018
By: World Israel News Staff
Egyptian President al-Sissi (R) and Jordan’s King Abdullah. (AP/MENA)
Arab nations informed US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoys that they would back a US peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians regardless of whether Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agrees to discuss it, according to a report by Israel Hayom.
Senior officials in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates met with White House adviser Jared Kushner and US Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt in recent days and reportedly conveyed this message.
They also said they have become fed up with Abbas’ rejectionism.
Kushner expressed a willingness to bypass Abbas in an interview that appeared this week with Al-Quds, a Palestinian newspaper.
“Despite the strategic mistakes made by Abu Mazen [Abbas] and his people,” an Egyptian official said, “Kushner and Greenblatt were told, in no uncertain terms, that the Palestinians deserve an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.”
According to the official, ”Kushner agreed to the Arab nations’ demand and made it clear during his meetings with [Jordan’s] King Abdullah and [Egyptian] President [Abdel-Fattah] el-Sissi that the interests of the Palestinian people will not be harmed if the regional peace plan is introduced without the Palestinian leadership’s cooperation.”
Abbas has declared that he would refuse to meet with Trump’s envoys after Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December and relocated the American Embassy to Jerusalem.
A top Egyptian official told Israel Hayom Sunday that the moderate Arab nations’ position was ”unanimous” and that Cairo, Amman, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi would not oppose an attempt by Washington to go over Abbas’ head in this case.
However, officials in all four nations made it clear to both American envoys that they would not be party to any deal that compromises Palestinian interests.
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