Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, plans to visit Israel next week with Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, for talks on advancing the US plan for the Palestinian enclave, Axios reported on Thursday.
The planned trip would be Kushner’s first visit to Israel since January, the news outlet said in a report citing five sources familiar with the plan.
Kushner and Mladenov intend to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials in an effort to reach understandings on implementing the plan’s next stages over the coming months, it added.
Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a 15-point Gaza plan approved by the Board of Peace and accepted by Hamas, insisting that the Palestinian resistance group must be disarmed before any further Israeli withdrawal from the besieged enclave.
His remarks came despite a roadmap issued by the board on July 31 which calls for Hamas’ disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal to proceed in parallel.
Axios quoted a US official as saying that “we see eye-to-eye on the strategic goal, but Israel has expressed some doubts about the plan and we want to talk to them in order to make sure we are coordinated.”
Netanyahu’s political needs
The White House does not want the Israeli elections to stall the implementation of the next phase of the plan, the report said.