Kushner says Mideast peace is essential to thwarting Iran and Islamist extremism

President Trump’s push for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians stems from a belief that his broader goals of stopping Iranian aggression and Islamist extremism will not be possible without it, presidential adviser Jared Kushner said in a rare public appearance Sunday.

“If we’re going to try to create more stability in the region as a whole, you have to solve this issue,” Kushner told Middle East experts gathered at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Forum. Trump, he said, “sees this as something that has to be solved.”

But nearly a year after Trump named Kushner, his son-in-law and senior White House aide, as point person for what he called “the ultimate deal,” there has been no public indication of where the initiative is heading.

Presumed participants in the plan — described by officials as a comprehensive package including Israel, the Palestinians, Arab governments and international backers — have been kept similarly in the dark, leading to widespread speculation and anxiety.

Read the whole story from The Washington Post.

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