Saudis emerge as leading boosters of Kushner, Trump’s peace vision

Published: 11 December 2017

Last updated: 4 March 2024

ACCORDING TO PALESTINIAN, Arab and European officials who have heard Abbas’s version of the conversation, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented a plan that would be more tilted toward the Israelis than any ever embraced by the American government, one that presumably no Palestinian leader could ever accept.

The Palestinians would get a state of their own but only non-contiguous parts of the West Bank and only limited sovereignty over their own territory. The vast majority of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which most of the world considers illegal, would remain.

The Palestinians would not be given East Jerusalem as their capital and there would be no right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

The White House denied that was its plan, saying it was still months away from finalising a blueprint for peace, and the Saudi government denied that it supports those positions.

That left many in Washington and the Middle East wondering whether the Saudi crown prince was quietly doing the bidding of Trump, trying to curry favour with the Americans, or freelancing in order to put pressure on the Palestinians or to make any eventual offer sound generous by comparison.

FULL STORY Talk of a peace plan that snubs Palestinians roils Middle East (NYT)