BICOM

US President Donald Trump’s senior diplomatic advisors met Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman yesterday, as part of their visit to the region to discuss their plan for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Jordanian news agency Petra said that Senior Advisor Jared Kushner and US Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, met with King Abdullah and discussed launching a “just and comprehensive peace in the region that enables the Palestinian people to fulfil their legitimate aspirations to establish an independent Palestinian state on the 4 June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

King Abdullah reportedly told the US team that any settlement should be “based on the two-state solution, the Arab Peace Initiative, international law, and relevant UN resolutions”.

A statement from the White House said they also discussed “increasing cooperation between the United States and Jordan, regional issues [and] the humanitarian situation in Gaza”.

The US team will meet leaders in Israel, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, although no talks with Palestinian leaders are currently scheduled.

On Monday, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, released a statement criticising the US peace plan. He said he was “against cooperating with a move whose goal is to perpetuate the separation between Gaza and the West Bank and lead to concessions on Jerusalem and the holy sites”.

The Trump Administration is seeking to convince Arab states to put pressure on the Palestinians to engage with the peace proposal. This is thought to be the US’s final round of consultations on the plan, which is near completion and could be released later this summer.