UK planning international meeting with Kushner to talk Mideast peace plan: report

The United Kingdom is planning a gathering of European foreign secretaries, Trump administration officials and foreign secretaries from top Arab nations to discuss the White House plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, Axios reported on Friday.

The White House team would include senior adviser and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, according to the report. Both officials have been tasked with working on the peace process.

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Axios reported that the gathering will likely be held at the beginning of July, though the location for the meeting is uncertain.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

According to the report, the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, met with Kushner in recent weeks to suggest the meeting. Kushner is open to suggestions from the European powers, but told Johnson the president will dictate the ultimate peace proposal, Axios said.

Axios said Johnson has discussed the push with foreign secretaries from several countries, including, Jordan, France, Egypt, Germany and Saudi Arabia. 

The meeting would follow Trump’s controversial decision late last year to move the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a city considered to be holy by all three monotheistic faiths.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. Some view east Jerusalem as occupied territory and Palestinians hope to make it the capital of a future independent state. 

The Trump administration has maintained that moving the embassy rightfully recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city.

The U.S. in May officially opened the embassy, an event marked by a bloody day on Israel’s border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Kushner, who has traveled to the Middle East multiple times while serving in the administration, attended the embassy opening.