US ‘near’ normalization between Israel, Arab states
Jerusalem-Washington difference grows as PA invited to redraw map • Kremlin, EU blast Trump peace plan
The US is actively pursuing normalization between Israel and numerous Arab countries in the Middle East, a senior White House official told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, just a day after the Arab League rejected the administration’s new peace plan.
“We are getting close on our work on normalization,” the official said.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive relations between the White House and Arab countries, said three measures were currently on the agenda: nonbelligerence agreements with Israel; direct flights between Israel and Arab countries; and allowing Israeli officials to attend events in Arab countries.
“We have been working behind the scenes to get it ready,” he said.
Last week, ambassadors from Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates attended the unveiling of the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, often referred to as the “Deal of the Century.” Their attendance was seen as a sign of warming ties between Israel and the Arab world.
The US official’s remarks came after the Palestinian decision to reject the administration’s peace plan. A few media reports indicated frustration among Arab countries from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision not to take a call from US President Donald Trump just days before the White House ceremony.
However, the official noted that moving forward with normalization between Israel and Arab countries is not a step meant to replace the peace plan.
“It’s an initiative led by
Jared Kushner, together with his work on the peace plan,” the official said.
“It is a separate track that the team has been working on for a while. After we released the plan, we saw that the reaction in the Arab street is very moderate and that many of [the Arab leaders] were ready to do it,” the official said. “When only Turkey and Iran said that they are against the plan, people [in the Arab world] realized that a line had been drawn.”
The official would not say when the first agreement would be reached. “We don’t like to set time lines, but there is a ton of momentum,” the official said.
Kushner expressed his frustration with the Palestinians in an interview with Egyptian television channel MBC, saying the Palestinians did not even consider the plan and decided to “reject something they haven’t seen.”
“If the Palestinians don’t like where the line is drawn, they should come and tell us where they want to draw it,” he said of the map included in “Peace to Prosperity,” the Trump administration’s 181page peace plan.
“The plan seeks to curb the expansion of the settlements to allow the feasibility of a Palestinian state,” he said.
Kushner portrayed the inclusion of a map in the plan as an achievement, saying, “There’s never been a visual map that Israel has agreed to.”
The map in question shows Israel retaining 30% of the West Bank, with the plan allowing Israel to apply its laws to all existing settlements, with a security buffer, and the Jordan Valley. The rest of the West Bank, along with Gaza, would be part of a future demilitarized Palestinian state, should the Palestinians agree to force Hamas and Islamic Jihad to put down their weapons, stop incitement and recognize Israel as a Jewish state, among other conditions.
The map also has Israel swapping land near the GazaEgypt border in exchange for the territory it would annex
and an underground tunnel connecting Gaza and the West Bank.
Kushner’s remarks highlighted the distance between Jerusalem’s statements about the Trump peace plan and the Trump administration’s apparent vision of how it would be implemented.
Immediately after Trump presented his plan in the White House on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would bring annexation of all settlements to a vote in his cabinet this week. US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told journalists Israel would be able to start annexing immediately. Kushner began making statements to the contrary soon after.
On Sunday, Likud sources told KAN Netanyahu might bring the Trump plan in its entirety, including support for a Palestinian state under certain conditions, to a cabinet vote and then bring annexation to a vote in the Knesset before the March 2 election.
But Kushner continued to put the brakes on annexation plans, saying: “It will take us two months to work out some of the territory and understand how to turn the concept map into a technical map – every road, every hill and every inch – and we want to see if we can [have] this territory recognized.”
Kushner also emphasized that all peaceful Muslims will be able to visit the Aqsa Mosque, and Israel would accept the custodianship of King Abdullah of Jordan at the holy site, as is currently the case.
Also Sunday, the Kremlin released a statement saying that Trump’s plan is in contravention of UN resolutions.
“We see the reaction from the Palestinians; we see the reaction of a wide range of Arab states which have sided with the Palestinians in rejecting the plan,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted in Russian media as saying. “This, obviously, makes one think about its feasibility.”
Similarly, EU foreign envoy Josep Borrell spoke out against the plan during a visit to Jordan.
“The experience over the past 50 years has shown that without agreement among all sides, no peace plan has the chance to succeed,” he said. “To find a sustainable way forward, both parties need to come back to the table. The US plan challenges many of the internationally agreed parameters: the 1967 border, as agreed by both parties, with a state of Israel and an independent, viable state of Palestine, living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition.”
King Abdullah of Jordan’s Twitter account stated: “His Majesty expresses appreciation for #EU’s support for #Jordan; reaffirms firm position on Palestinian cause, need to end Palestinian-Israeli conflict on basis of two-state solution leading to independent Palestinian state on 4 June 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.” •