As the Trump administration is nearing a plan for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it is to unveil soon, Jordan’s King Abdullah told Senior Adviser Jared Kushner that it must be based on a two-state solution that gives Palestinians a capital in East Jerusalem.
Kushner, who is expected to present the plan’s economic portion at a conference in Bahrain next month, is travelling to Jordan, Morocco and Israel this week to garner support for it. King Abdullah is unlikely to attend the conference, CNN reports.
However, in his discussion with Kushner, the King was adamant that efforts to achieve long-lasting peace between the two nations must be intensified and that any resolution to the decades-old conflict must be based on “the two-state solution, guaranteeing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 4 June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side with Israel in peace and security, in accordance with international law and relevant UN resolutions.”
Kushner, on his part, has repeatedly stressed that he and his team would likely dismiss previous formulas for peace talks, and focus on a different approach that includes investing in Palestinian territories before dealing with political issues.
Considering Jordan shares a border with Israel where the majority of the population is of Palestinian descent, the King has a “special role and status in Jerusalem,” says Aaron David Miller from the Wilson Center. As a result, he has much greater stakes in the outcome of the plan.
“If the political part of this plan turns out to be a betrayal of the Palestinian narrative, it exposes Abdullah in a way that no other Arab leader is exposed,” Miller said.
Kushner’s visit to Jordan provoked Tuesday calls by activists and members of the Muslim brotherhood for protests outside the U.S. Embassy in the Jordanian capital, but they were eventually blocked from holding a rally there by Jordanian security forces.
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