Kushner to join US delegation to Middle East

The Trump government has announced it will send a high-level delegation, including the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to the Middle East.

The news came as the US envoy to the Qatari crisis, Gen Anthony Zinni, yesterday finished his visit to the GCC countries and Egypt.

Mr Kushner will be accompanied in the new delegation by the US envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian Peace process, Jason Greenblatt, and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell. They will leave for the Middle East within days.

While the timetable for the trip has not been made public, the White House said the delegation would meet leaders from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar and Israel, “to continue discussions on how to support peace efforts between the Israelis and Palestinians”.

A spokeswoman said Donald Trump had asked for talks to be focused on Israeli-Palestinian peace, battling extremism, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and economic steps to ensure a peace deal offered regional security, stability and prosperity.

The delegation is due in Israel at the end of this month.

Eric Trager, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said “the deeper involvement of the White House in these regional matters reflects the priority that the administration is putting on getting an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and resolving the GCC rift”.

“It likely reflects the administration’s desire to stay focused on these issues while secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who had been managing the GCC file, is focused on the stand-off with North Korea,” Mr Trager said.

But he was not positive on the chances of a breakthrough.

“I wish them luck but the peace process is stalling and the GCC is divided because of political factors within the region – not because Washington hasn’t given these matters sufficient high-level attention.”