Global Geopolitical Series: Key Arab-Israeli meeting held at White House on Tuesday

An important meeting took place at the White House yesterday, as, after weeks of long telephonic conversations, the Trump administration succeeded in bringing Arab and Israeli diplomats at the same table. While initially all said that they could not be in the same room with each other, the White House finally succeeded on Tuesday as national security officials and negotiators from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Bahrain sat down together to discuss the ongoing peace efforts in the Middle East, more particularly peace between Israelis and Palestinians. While the Trump administration has been planning the meeting over several weeks but released the list of attendees only in the morning of the summit, which also included officials from Egypt, Jordan, Canada and various governments of Europe. However, no officials from Palestinian Authority (PA) were present.

Trump's team was led by Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser leading the administration's peace process, and Jason Greenblatt, the US special representative for international negotiations. The meeting could be seen as a first positive step towards restarting the peace negotiation.  One of the major focus was on Gaza strip, where Hamas has been a threat and Mr. Kushner pressed upon involved parties, the importance of Gaza in securing a peace.

To highlight the importance of Gaza strip Mr. Greenblatt reportedly said, “We regret that the Palestinian Authority is not here with us today…….This is not about politics. This is about the health, safety, and happiness of the people of Gaza, and of all Palestinians, Israelis and Egyptians……As you know, we are here today to consider ideas on how to address the humanitarian challenges in Gaza – a topic that has long been at the forefront of all of our minds……It has certainly been on mine……. We all know that none of this will be easy……..And, everything we do must be done in a way that ensures we do not put the security of Israelis and Egyptians at risk– and that we do not inadvertently empower Hamas, which bears responsibility for Gaza’s suffering…….. There are no excuses for inaction…..Inaction not only leads to more suffering for the Palestinians in Gaza, but also creates more security challenges for Israelis and Egyptians, and pushes the prospects for a comprehensive peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians further and further away.”

After the meeting, Mr. Greenblatt hailed it as a successful one in his tweet, “Many thanks to my friends from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates & Israel at the White House for the Gaza Conference. Thank you for putting all tensions aside to work w/ us. Everyone left politics at the door & focused on practical solutions.”

This is the first time both Arabs and Israelis were in the same room since 1991 and this is the first time the White House hosted such meeting.