White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and a team of outgoing Trump administration officials are heading to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week in an attempt to secure more diplomatic agreements in the Middle East before the Trump administration leaves office in January, according to reports.
The visit by Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, comes amid simmering tensions in the Middle East region following the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist over the weekend.
A senior administration official told Reuters on Sunday that Kushner is to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi city of Neom, and then meet with the emir of Qatar later in the week. Kushner will be joined by Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook and Adam Boehler, chief executive of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
A top focus of the visit is to find a solution to the rift between Qatar and other gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia. Kushner had been focused on brokering an agreement that established relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
According to a number of news outlets, last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia to speak with Crown Prince Mohammed, the first such meeting between leaders of the two countries. Saudi Arabia denied the meeting took place.
Jared Kushner and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
U.S. officials had hoped the meeting would lead to a breakthrough in negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but Saudi officials balked, according to the Wall Street Journal. Saudi Arabia reportedly wished to wait for a diplomatic breakthrough “because of the U.S. presidential election and their interest in building ties to President-elect Joe Biden,” the WSJ reports.
The trip could mark the last time that Mr. Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, meets as a White House official with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
