Kushner, Greenblatt to attend Mideast security summit in Warsaw

The "Ministerial to Promote a future of Peace and Security in the Middle East" is scheduled over Valentine's Day and was originally intended to "make sure Iran is not a destabilizing influence."

JANUARY 31, 2019 16:06

Updated: FEBRUARY 2, 2019 21:11

Jared Kushner (L) and Jason Greenblatt (R) (photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS & REUTERS) — Jared Kushner (L) and Jason Greenblatt (R)

(photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS & REUTERS)

WASHINGTON – Two of US President Donald Trump’s top advisers designing a plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace will travel to Warsaw this month for a summit on Mideast security.

According to a senior White House official, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt will attend the ministerial meeting in Poland, which is expected to draw several statesmen from the region, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kushner will then travel to Germany for the Munich Security Conference, the official said.

The “Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East” is scheduled over Valentine’s Day and was originally intended to “make sure Iran is not a destabilizing influence,” according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

But US officials have recently downplayed the conference’s focus on Iran, with European powers expressing disinterest in the event.

Kushner and Greenblatt are preparing to launch their Middle East peace plan– which encourages a broader Israeli-Arab peace– some time this spring or summer.

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat expressed the Palestinians’ objection to the Warsaw conference, and accused the US of seeking to overturn the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Erekat, who was speaking on Thursday at a news conference in Ramallah, said that the US was seeking normalization between the Arab countries and Israel before peace is reached between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Arab Peace Initiative calls for the establishment of normal relations between the Arab countries and Israel only after a complete Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1867 lines and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

“The US is seriously planning to overturn the Arab Peace Initiative,” Erekat said about the upcoming conference. “This means normalization first and peace second. This will allow the [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu government to commit more crimes, but the Palestinian leadership will not allow that.”‭‮

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Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report.