Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is leading a U.S. delegation to the Middle East this week seeking support for a late June workshop aimed at helping the Palestinians, a White House official said on Tuesday.
Kushner, Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz began their trip in Rabat, Morocco, and were to travel to Amman and Jerusalem, arriving in Israel on Thursday.
Kushner also will attend the Bilderberg conference in Montreux, Switzerland, where he is expected to be a speaker, at the end of the week and then will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in London when the latter makes a state visit there next week.
The trip is similar to the one that Kushner and Greenblatt took in February to Gulf states to drum up support for the economic portion of a Middle East peace plan they have been developing on behalf of Trump.
The official said one reason for this week's trip is to bolster support for a June 25-26 conference in Manama, Bahrain, in which Kushner is to unveil the first part of Trump's long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
The plan, touted by Trump as the "deal of the century," is to encourage investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Arab donor countries before grappling with thorny political issues at the heart of the conflict.
Palestinian leaders have been sharply critical of the effort.
"The Palestinian leadership has already categorically refused to take part, saying that the PLO will not surrender to anyone its exclusive rights to make crucial decisions regarding the realization of Palestinians' national aspirations," it said.
"The deal of the century or the deal of shame will go to hell, with God's will, and the economic project they are working on next month will go to hell too," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said this week. "Whoever wants to solve the Palestinian issue must start with the political issue, not by selling the illusions of billions [of dollars]."
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have said they will participate, and a senior U.S. official said officials from Qatar have said privately their country was expected to attend as well.
"Dialogue with Israel is a positive thing," Anwar Gargash, the UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, recently told journalists. "I think this is something that we need to do, but at the same time the dialogue with Israel doesn't mean that we don't disagree with them politically."
In a recent editorial, the editor in chief of a Saudi newspaper with close ties to the palace urged the Palestinians to give the Trump plan a chance.
"The Palestinians should negotiate hard, and then take what they can to secure a nation-state for future generations," Faisal Abbas wrote in the Arab News. "There is nothing to be gained from a refusal to come to the negotiating table."
In another important diplomatic breakthrough, the attendance of Qatar, which has been embroiled in a bitter dispute with Saudi Arabia, is a possible precursor of a broader reconciliation among Gulf rivals.
Beyond the Gulf, the plan appears to face skepticism.
Jordan is in an especially sensitive situation. A majority of its population has Palestinian roots, and the kingdom borders the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a future state. Any perception that Jordan is selling out the interests of the Palestinians would be deeply unpopular and possibly even destabilizing.
Ahead of Kushner's arrival, Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, indicated he is uncomfortable with the economy-first approach.
The official Petra news agency said that in a phone call with his Irish counterpart, Safadi stressed that "any economic plan to handle the consequences of the conflict can't be an alternative to a comprehensive political plan that aims at fulfilling the two-state solution."
"Safadi stressed that all efforts for solving the conflict need to begin from the fact that ending the occupation is the path for peace," the agency said.
Egypt, a key U.S. and Israeli ally that borders Gaza, also has not said whether it will attend. An Egyptian official said businessmen who do business with Israelis might take part in the conference as "individuals." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.
A source familiar with the planning said it appeared Egypt, Jordan and Oman, as well as the G7 countries, also would send representatives to the conference.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has repeatedly called for the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The European Union has not said whether it will attend the conference, while Russia, another key player in the region, late Tuesday called the meeting an attempt by Washington to enforce its views on the Middle East.
A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized what it called the United States' "stubborn desire to replace the task of achieving a comprehensive political settlement with a package of economic bonuses that dilutes the principle of two states for two peoples."
Meanwhile, as tensions across the Persian Gulf remain high, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton was visiting the UAE.
Bolton tweeted he had arrived in the Emirates for meetings on Wednesday "to discuss important and timely regional security matters."
America recently deployed an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf over threats from Tehran. The U.S. also pulled nonessential diplomats out of Iraq and sent hundreds of more troops to the region.
Meanwhile, Emirati officials allege four ships off their coast were sabotaged. Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have launched drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. pulled out of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers a year ago. Iran now says it too will begin backing away from the accord.
