During the Wednesday meeting in Saudi Arabia, which took place in the presence of US special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt, the two sides exchanged views on Washington-Riyadh bilateral ties as well as the Palestinian issue, according to a statement from the White House.
Kushner kicked off his tour on Tuesday in Amman, where he and Greenblatt sat down for talks with Jordanian King Abdullah II. A day earlier, the king of Jordan had met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the so-called peace process.
The US delegation is also scheduled to visit Israel, Egypt and Qatar, but no stop has been planned in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is based.
The US-Palestine ties deteriorated last December, when Washington recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and announced plans to transfer the embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city.
Israel lays claim to the whole of al-Quds, but the international community views the city’s eastern sector as an occupied territory and Palestinians consider it as the capital of their future state.
The contentious move led President Mahmoud Abbas to formally declare that Palestinians would no longer accept the US as a mediator to resolve the conflict because Washington was “completely biased” towards Tel Aviv.
The Palestinian Authority, which has frozen contacts with Washington due its bias in favor of Tel Aviv, is working to form an international mediation mechanism to replace the US.
The Saudi regime has long been seeking to depict itself as an advocate of the Palestinian cause, but reports over the past months suggest that the kingdom under bin Salman is helping the US behind the scenes to impose the hugely pro-Israel “peace” plan on Palestinians.
Late last year, the Saudi crown prince was reported to have put pressure on Abbas to accept the plan being drawn up by Kushner.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued illegal settlement expansion on occupied Palestinian territories.
