US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the architect of a new US peace plan for the Middle East, blamed Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas for recent violence in Israel on Thursday.
“He does have a responsibility for it,” Kushner told media after briefing UN Security Council members on the plan that has been rejected by the Palestinians.
“He calls for days of rage in response and he said that even before he saw the plan,” Kushner added.
Belgian UN Ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve, whose country holds the Security Council presidency for the month of February said, “The understanding is that the US will request closed consultations in order to brief council members on the American plan. The idea, as I understand, will be that Kushner, as the special envoy, would be participating in that meeting,”
The Security Council will also hold a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on February 11, said the ambassador.
On January 28, President Trump unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan, envisaging a two-state solution but keeping Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital.
On Saturday, Arab foreign ministers have also come up with their rejection of the plan.
During the Arab League emergency meeting held in Cairo, foreign ministers said, “Rejection of the US-Israeli Deal of the Century comes as it does not fulfil the minimum rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people”.
President Trump said his plan includes “a realistic two-state solution,” and that his administration would “work to create a territory for a contiguous Palestinian state in the future” that would “reject terrorism.”
Under the plan, Jerusalem will remain Israel’s “undivided capital,” Trump said, raising eyebrows after he had said that the capital of the Palestinian state would be in “eastern Jerusalem,” where the United States would “proudly open an embassy.”
The plan builds on a 30-page economic plan for the West Bank and Gaza that was unveiled last June and which the Palestinians have also rejected.