US officials discuss Mideast peace with Gulf leaders

AFP  |  Dubai 

US officials and have met with leaders in the and as part of a regional tour to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"They discussed increasing cooperation between the and the United Arab Emirates, and the Trump administration's efforts to facilitate peace between the Israelis and Palestinians," said a statement.

"Additionally, they discussed ways to improve the entire region through economic investment." The US officials addressed the same issues in talks with Oman's on Monday.

Brian Hook, the for Iran, also attended the meetings.

Earlier this month Kushner briefed countries at a conference in on Washington's plans for a peace deal between and the Palestinian to be formally presented after Israeli elections in April.

Kushner said on Monday that the US has tried to figure out a "realistic... and fair solution" to the issue.

"We've focused on the following four principles that we've used in which to create the plan," he said in an interview aired on UAE-based Arabia.

"First principle is to have freedom. We want people to be able to have the freedom of opportunity, the freedom of religion, the freedom of worship, regardless of your faith.

"Respect. We want all people to have dignity and to respect each other.

Opportunity. We want people to be able to better their lives and not allow their grandfather's conflict to hijack their children's future. And the final one is security." Top officials of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and -- none of whom recognise -- attended the conference alongside Israeli who called the talks a "turning point".

But the Palestinians rejected the meeting as an "American conspiracy" with aims to "normalise" the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

The Palestinians have refused to talk to the since the US recognised as Israel's capital in December 2017.

They see the eastern part of the disputed city as the capital of their future state and have said Washington's pro-bias meant the US could no longer be the main in stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

The has since dealt a series of blows to the Palestinian Authority, including cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for the Palestinians.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Tue, February 26 2019. 18:10 IST