US Peace Plan Will Not Be Unveiled Before End of Ramadan in June

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner confirmed that the Trump Administration’s much-hype and long-delayed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan will not be unveiled before the completion of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan in early June. Kushner, the chief architect of the proposal, made the announcement while speaking to dozens of foreign diplomats, whom he urged to keep an open mind about the US diplomatic push. Contrary to recent reports, the US president’s son-in-law said the peace plan contains “very detailed” political elements and does not focus exclusively on economic development projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In this respect, Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, tweeted for an end to the “continued speculation [that] doesn’t help anyone & harms the [peace] effort.” He also denounced newly-inaugurated Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh’s classification this week of the initiative as “born dead,” contending that “starting a new job by condemning a plan you [Shtayyeh] haven’t seen is unfair to Palestinians.” PA President Mahmoud Abbas 18 months ago imposed a total boycott on the US administration, claiming the White House is biased towards Israel and that, as a corollary, its proposal will not take into account Ramallah’s positions on the core issues of the conflict, including the future status of Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees. Another major point of contention is Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s election campaign promise to annex parts of the West Bank, a move US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested would not negatively affect the peace process.