Jared Kushner, adviser and son-in-law to US President Donald Trump addressed the peace agreement he helped broker between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Monday.
Addressing Israeli reporters, Kushner said that “Israel has made a very generous proposal for the establishment of a Palestinian state, including an exchange of territories. The understanding that this is the situation has enabled the breakthrough that led to the current agreement.”
“The president laid out his vision for peace in January this year … and this is the first map ever agreed to by one of the parties publicly put out in a peace negotiation. We got Israel to agreed to negotiate on the basis of the process of division, they agreed to the map and agreed to move forward on a Palestinian state. This was a major breakthrough that changed the view of a lot of people in the region about Israel’s seriousness to actually make concessions to resolve this longstanding conflict,” Kushner said, adding the countries in the region also questioned why the Palestinian Authority boycotted the economic conference in Bahrain.
“There is a generous offer of a state and an exchange of territories, and we offer the Palestinians a return to the table,” he said
When asked how the US would make certain that Israel does not unilaterally annex any territory, Kushner said, “We built a very trusting relationship with Israel. President Trump is committed to holding them accountable to it, and Israel has agreed with us that they will not move forward without our consent. We do not plan to give our consent for some time, as right now the focus has to be on getting this new peace agreement implemented. We really want to get as much interchange between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as possible, and we really want Israel to focus on creating new relationships and new alliances.”
“That land is land that right now that Israel, quite frankly, controls. It’s Israelis who are living there. It’s not going anywhere. There shouldn’t be any urgency to apply Israeli law. So we believe that they will stick to their agreement,” he said.
