Officials say the White House is prepared to announce the first part of its Middle East peace proposal: an economic “workshop” to encourage capital investments in the region.
By Connor Mannion, mediaite.com
The announcement comes as President Donald Trump threatened “the official end of Iran” if Iran wanted to fight on Twitter.
CNN reported Sunday that Jared Kushner’s administration team seeking a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians has decided to launch their plan in two phases: the first phase being the economic workshop to be held in Bahrain in late June.
However, representatives for the Palestinian Authority are not expected to attend the workshop. A spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas said “any economic plan without political horizons will lead nowhere.”
“Palestinians will not accept any proposals which do not include a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
A White House official said the workshop will focus only on the economic plan “to show that you can’t have peace without economic stability and opportunity.”
The U.S. delegation to the workshop in Bahrain on June 25-26 will be headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Kushner.
Officials said a second phase involving political solutions is planned for an announcement later this year.
