-Kushner urges Palestinians to negotiate
-Says Palestinians should not be ‘stuck in the past’
Middle East Desk Report
DUBAI: A US-Israeli delegation, led by Jared Kushner, senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, arrived at the presidential airport in Abu Dhabi on Monday, according to the official WAM news agency. The delegation left in the morning onboard an Israeli commercial plane on which the word “peace” was printed in Arabic, English and Hebrew above a cockpit window.
The delegation, comprised of representatives from investment, finance, health, civil space and aviation, foreign policy, diplomacy, tourism, and culture sectors, will meet with representatives of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government agencies to discuss ways to develop relations and promote cooperation, WAM reported. It added that this visit comes as part of trilateral efforts to initiate normalized relations with the aim of “achieving peace, stability, and support for bilateral cooperation.”
The two-day visit will include working meetings of the joint teams ahead of the signing of cooperation deals following the U.S.-brokered agreement to normalize ties between Israel and the UAE, which was announced on Aug. 13. A statement from Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said ahead of the departure that the meetings will focus on issues related to “the civil and economic spheres.”
The visit will also include a trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi between the heads of the delegations.Moreover, Senior U.S. and Israeli officials landed in the United Arab Emirates on Monday on a historic trip to finalize a pact marking open relations between Israel and the Gulf state, and told Palestinians it was now time for them to negotiate peace. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner added on arrival that Washington could maintain Israel’s military edge while advancing its ties to the UAE, the Arab world’s second largest economy and a regional power.
Announced on Aug. 13, the normalization deal is the first such accommodation between an Arab country and Israel in more than 20 years and was forged largely through shared fears of Iran. Palestinians were dismayed by the UAE’s move, worried that it would weaken a long-standing pan-Arab position that called for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory – and acceptance of Palestinian statehood – in return for normal relations with Arab countries.
Kushner said Palestinians should not be “stuck in the past”.
“They have to come to the table. Peace will be ready for them, an opportunity will be ready for them as soon as they are ready to embrace it,” said Kushner, part of a U.S. delegation that accompanied Israeli officials on the first official Israeli flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE. Kushner and national security adviser Robert O’Brien head the U.S. delegation.
The Israeli team is led by O’Brien’s counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat. Israel and the United Arab Emirates will discuss economic, scientific, trade and cultural cooperation on the visit. Direct flights between the two countries will also be on the agenda, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman told al Arabiya television after landing in Abu Dhabi.
Even before landing, the delegates made aviation history when the Israeli commercial airliner flew over Saudi territory on the direct flight from Tel Aviv to the UAE capital. “That’s what peace for peace looks like,” Netanyahu tweeted, describing a deal for formal ties with an Arab state that does not entail handover of land that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli officials hope the two-day trip will produce a date for a signing ceremony in Washington, perhaps as early as September, between Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
