Reports: Kushner secretly visited Saudi Arabia, Israel for peace efforts

US President Donald Trump’s chief Middle East adviser, Jared Kushner is reported to have secretly visited Saudi Arabia and Israel last week in a bit to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Politico newspaper revealed that this is the third visit by Kushner this year to the Kingdom. He was accompanied by Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Dina Powell and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt.

CNN reported that Kushner, who is also the president’s son-in-law, visited Israel after Riyadh.

While the White House refused to disclose the reasons for Kushner’s secret visit, the newspaper pointed out that American and Saudi parties discussed a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Read: ‘Saudi Arabia’s relation with Israel not based on politics’

The newspaper quoted remarks by American billionaire and close friend of President Trump, Thomas Barrack as saying:

The key to solving the crisis [in the Middle East] is Egypt, while the key to Egypt is Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.

Trump has been working to kickstart Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in a bid to reach a peace agreement which would include normalising relations between Israel and the Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, which proposed the Arab peace initiative in 2002.