Jared Kushner and Team to Visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar

Jared Kushner, senior advisor to US President Donald Trump, will travel this week to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to reports. Kushner will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi city of Neom, a developing city on the Red Sea in northwestern Saudi Arabia. He also will travel to Qatar to meet with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar. Kushner reportedly will be accompanied on the trip by US Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, International Development Finance Corporation CEO Adam Boehler and former Iran special envoy Brian Hook. The meetings reportedly will center on renewing ties between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which were broken in 2017 over accusations that Qatar was supporting terror. The talks also could be an attempt to encourage the Arab states to normalize relations with Israel. Kushner already has negotiated such normalization deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in recent months. The announcement of the trip comes days after the assassination of Iran’s chief nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in an attack blamed on Israel. In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reportedly met bin Salman in a secret meeting last week in Neom.