Jared Kushner expected to play key role in Trump’s Middle East efforts

Trump transition The team has been working hard this week to bring the Trump administration together. His Middle East team is also taking shape, with Trump picking former Arkansas Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee and his good friend and real estate developer. Steve Witkoff For key roles. However, it will be difficult to ignore the relationships Kushner established with Middle Eastern leaders during his time as Trump’s advisor.

Kushner was asked to develop Middle East peace plan during Trump’s first term that brought together the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in a peace agreement Israel. He also maintained the relationships he established four years ago. appearance We are in communication with Israeli officials and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the Saudi Future Investment Initiative in 2023.

Kushner and Salman were close enough to communicate via text throughout Trump’s first term, often leaving national security officials in the dark about the context of the messages. Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trumptraveled with then-President Trump on his first visit Saudi Arabia The trip led to Kushner making multiple visits to the kingdom to meet with Salman.

Kushner, backed by Gulf sovereign wealth funds, founded his own investment fund, Affinity Partners, shortly after leaving Washington. In recent years, the fund has received $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, prompting critics to point out that it has financial interests in the region.

However, if Trump hopes to stem tensions in the Middle East as quickly as he has promised, he may have to lean on Kushner’s relationships and focus on ending the Israel-Hamas conflict once and for all. Trump on the campaign trail in question Israel needed to “finish what it started” and “finish it quickly” in Gaza.

Kushner did too comments “If people focus on creating livelihoods, Gaza’s coastal properties can be very valuable,” he said of Gaza this year.

“It’s a bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s point of view I would do my best to get people out and then clean up,” Kushner said. “But I don’t think Israel later stated that it didn’t want the people to go back there.”

Kushner also has a relationship with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuI’ve known him since he was little. Kushner’s recent meeting with Netanyahu’s strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, showed how close Trump has remained with Israeli officials since his first presidency.

The war in Gaza is causing a rift between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but many in the Trump administration believe Kushner’s peace plan lays the groundwork for how the Middle East team can move forward on mending that relationship.

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Kushner published Breaking History A book in 2022 reportedly Many of Trump’s candidates studied to better understand the region’s dynamics and power players. But where some read the book, others go straight to the source.

Weeks before Trump announced Witkoff as his special envoy to the Middle East, Witkoff summoned Kushner to a meeting to review next steps toward meeting with leaders in the Middle East, and Kushner’s request for a number of Trump administration appointees was sought after. He reinforced that he was an official advisor.