Kushner travels to Middle East for peace negotiations

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is in the Middle East this week as the White House continues Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Kushner, along with White House deputy national security adviser Dina Powell and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, left for the trip on Sunday and will arrive in Israel on Wednesday, a senior White House official said.

{mosads}The officials will have independent meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday.

The White House earlier this month announced the trip, but did not disclose when President Trump’s advisers would be traveling to the region.

An official at the time said the talks would “focus on the path to substantive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, combatting extremism, the situation in Gaza, including how to ease the humanitarian crisis there.” The announcement earlier this month also said Kushner, Powell and Greenblatt would meet with leaders from several Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The latest trip comes after Kushner and Greenblatt traveled to the Middle East in June, when they took part in what was reportedly a “tense” meeting that angered Abbas.

Trump has expressed optimism about peace negotiations since taking office and said he hopes to strike a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians. The administration has previously warned Israel about settlement expansion, saying it could inhibit the peace process.