Trump’s adviser ‘to cement’ ties
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s sonin-law and senior presidential adviser arrived in the United Arab Emirates yesterday to cement the recently unveiled UAE-Israel agreement on the normalisation of ties. Palestinian officials blasted the UAE’s decision as a “cowardly” move which “betrays” Palestinian interests.
Jared Kushner has urged Palestinians to stop living in the past, and said a lasting peace would be “ready for them... as soon as they are ready to embrace it”.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has called the newly agreed Israeli-UAE deal a betrayal of their interests, dubbing it “an aggression against the Palestinian
people”. Hamas, the political and militant group which controls Gaza, has accused the UAE of “stabbing Palestinians in the back” and rewarding “the Israeli occupation”.
Earlier, Palestinian officials and Arab nations broadly denounced the peace plan, with PA President Mahmoud Abbas saying it belonged in the “garbage can of history” and that Jerusalem was “not for sale”.
The Trump plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace calls for a two-state solution, recognition of Israeli claims to settlements in the West Bank, Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, and the recognition of Jerusalem as the country’s capital.
For the Palestinian side, the plan proposes a $50 billion (R843bn) fund for infrastructure and investment, as well as a few neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem for a Palestinian capital.