Trump Peace Plan Doesn't Include Confederation With Jordan, Says Envoy Greenblatt
'Making Jordan the homeland for Palestinians' is off the table, U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt vows, as details of much anticipated plan remain veiled
U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt denied on Wednesday "rumors that our peace vision includes a confederation" between Israel, the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank and Jordan.
Haaretz Weekly Ep. 24
As the publication of the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan nears, Greenblatt said in a tweet that it does not "contemplate making Jordan the homeland for Palestinians."
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The American plan is expected to be unveiled once Israel's newly reelected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forms a government coalition and after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in June.
Few details of the long-anticipated plan have been made public so far, but it has been widely reported that it will not include an independent Palestinian state.
One of its co-authors, President Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner, hinted Tuesday at the possibility that it includes limited autonomy for Palestinians. Speaking at a Time magazine event, Kushner said past negotiations over a two-state solution have "failed. New and different ways to reach peace must be tried."
Another architect of the plan, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, has said that Israel will maintain security control over the West Bank, suggesting limited autonomy for the Palestinians.
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Last week, Greenblatt, one of the architects of the proposal, said that the plan will not involve giving land from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to a Palestinian territory in Gaza.
The Palestinian leadership, initially enthusiastic about Trump administration peace efforts, cut off Kushner and other negotiators after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.
On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the peace plan in an address to the Arab League in Cairo. He demanded that Israel fully withdraw from all occupied territories and called on Arab states, considered key partners in a future agreement, to be "engaged actively at this critical time."
CORRECTION: This story has been amended from the original to say that Kushner said past efforts at a two-state solution have failed, not that a two-state solution has failed.