Kushner's 'deal of the century' for Israel-Palestine peace process to be unveiled in June
The United States will reveal its long-awaited Middle East peace plan after the holy month of Ramadan ends in early June, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner said during a media forum on Tuesday.
Kushner, speaking at a Time Magazine panel, said the US will be ready to unveil its so-called "deal of the century" after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forms a coalition government, which is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.
"Once that's done we'll probably be in the middle of Ramadan, so we'll wait until after Ramadan and then we'll put our plan out," he said.
Ramadan will begin in early May and end in early June.
Kushner said the deal will include a "robust business plan" for the Palestinians.
However, he refused to confirm whether the plan would lead to an independent Palestinian state. Washington has long sought a two-state solution to the conflict, but the Trump administration appears to be moving away from urging Israel to stop expanding its settlements in the occupied West Bank - where a Palestinian state would be established.
"Our focus is really on the bottom up, which is how do you make the lives of the Palestinian people better, what can you resolve to allow these areas to become more investable?" Kushner said on Tuesday.
During his election campaign earlier this month, Netanyahu vowed to annex the country's illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, a proposal that would diminish the prospects of Palestinian statehood.
Kushner's announcement comes after Netanyahu said he would be naming an illegal Israeli settlement in the Golan Heights after Trump.
Last week, new Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh rejected news of the plan's proposed arrival, telling the Associated Press that the peace plan will be "born dead."
"There are no partners in Palestine for Trump. There are no Arab partners for Trump and there are no European partners for Trump," Shtayyeh said.
Palestinian officials have vowed to reject any US-led negotiations after a string of unprecedented policy moves by Trump in favour of the Netanyahu government, including the White House's decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, declaring the holy city the capital of Israel.
The Trump administration has also slashed hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to Palestinians and suspended support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Meanwhile, Israel has recently withheld the transfer of tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues to punish the Palestinian government for its "martyrs' fund", a programme that provides stipends to the families of Palestinians imprisoned or killed by Israel.
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