US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would likely wait until after Israel’s September 17 general elections to reveal his much-anticipated Middle East plan.
The plan is being drafted by White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The economic aspect of the proposal was unveiled during a workshop in Bahrain in June.
It proposed $50 billion economic development plan for the Palestinians, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon that is designed to create peace in the region.
“We can turn this region from a victim of past conflicts into a model for commerce and advancement throughout the world,” Kushner had told the gathering.
The lack of a political solution has prompted rejection not from Palestinians. Neither the Israeli nor Palestinian governments attended the event in Manama.
It is not clear whether the Trump team plans to abandon the “two-state solution”, which involves the creation of an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel.
The United Nations and most countries back the two-state solution, which has underpinned every peace plan for decades, but Trump’s team has consistently refused to commit to it.
Any solution must settle long-standing issues such as the status of Jerusalem, mutually agreed borders, Israel’s security concerns, Palestinian demands for statehood and the fate of Israel’s settlements and military presence in territory where Palestinians want to build that state.
