The White House has unveiled the first part of its MiddleEast peace proposal, which is being deemed as an economic “workshop”to encourage investing capital in the West Bank, Gaza, and the region, a senioradministration official told CNN.
The White House announced on Sunday that the workshop willtake place in Manama, Bahrain, on June 25 and 26, bringing together financeministers with global and regional business leaders.
The effort is being headed by Jared Kushner, the seniorWhite House adviser and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and White HouseMiddle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, who have spent years developing theproposal along with the much stickier political component, which officials saidwould be announced later in the year.
Kushner told CNN on Sunday that “people are lettingtheir grandfathers’ conflict destroy their children’s futures. This willpresent an exciting, realistic and viable pathway forward that does notcurrently exist”.
The senior administration official said that the plan willdiscuss four major components: infrastructure; industry; empowering andinvesting in people; and governance reforms “to make the area asinvestible as possible”.
The economic plan will also include a “combination ofgrant money, low interest loans and then also private capital”, theofficial said.
The workshop however, will avoid political issues such aswhether the Palestinians will get their own state; the status of Jerusalem;measures Israel takes in the name of security; and what should happen withPalestinians and their descendants who fled or were expelled from Israel aroundthe time of the state’s creation in 1948, he added.
Finance ministers, but not foreign ministers, will beinvited along with delegations of business leaders.
On Sunday afternoon, however, Palestinian AuthorityPresident Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, told CNN that the planwas “futile”.
“Any economic plan without political horizons will leadnowhere… Palestinians will not accept any proposals which do not include aPalestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
The decision on whether or not Palestinians would attend theworkshop would be made by the leadership of Abbas, Abu Rudeineh said, addingthat when a similar meeting was held in Washington in March 2018 to discussways of improving the economic and humanitarian situation facing Gazans, thePalestinians had chosen to stay away.