Kushner says Israel-Palestine deal prerequisite for regional ‘stability’

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser on Middle East peace, yesterday declared that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is a prerequisite to a wider Israeli alliance with the Arab world, reported Haaretz.

Kushner made the remarks at the Saban Forum in Washington DC, during a conversation with Israeli-born business mogul Haim Saban.

I think that if we’re going to try and create more stability in the region as a whole, this issue [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] has to be solved

Kushner said.

Acknowledging to some extent the criticism levelled at the Trump administration’s approach to the peace process, Kushner said: “It’s not a conventional team, but it’s a perfectly qualified team.”

“There’s no better real estate lawyer than Jason Greenblatt, and there are a lot of real estate issues related to this. We have Dina Powell, who has been very instrumental in helping us develop a regional economic plan for what could happen after a peace agreement,” he added.

Read: US to probe Kushner’s relations with Israel

Kushner claimed that “many countries in the region [Middle East] see Israel as a much more likely ally than it was 20 years ago because of Iran, because of ISIS [Daesh].”

“The president has been very clear about his intentions on this issue, and going to Saudi Arabia and laying out a priority of fighting Iran’s aggression was significant,” he said.