The son-in-law of US President Donald Trump and senior White House advisor landed in the Qatari capital on Wednesday, on the fifth leg of his Middle East tour.
Jared Kushner met with Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on a low-profile trip to the Gulf state, authorities confirmed, following visits to Abu Dhabi, Manama, Riyadh as well as Tel Aviv.
The two officials met at the Al-Bahr palace to discuss a range of topics, including the “close and strategic relations” between Qatar and the United States, peace in the region and the ongoing Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] crisis.
Since 2017, Qatar has faced an illegal air, land and sea blockade by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.
According to the state-owned Qatar News Agency, the Amir also “called for a just settlement of the Palestinian cause on the basis of international legitimacy resolutions, the Arab Peace Initiative and the two-state solution to achieve security and stability in the region.”
Normalisation of relations
Kushner inaugurated his tour on Tuesday by visiting the United Arab Emirates on an Israeli El Al plane, the first ever commercial flight between Israel and the Gulf region. The Abu Dhabi visit came amid ongoing outrage over the controversial normalisation of ties between Israel and the UAE.
The move was supported by countries within the MENA region, including Bahrain, Egypt and Oman, while Palestinian factions across the board firmly denounced normalisation with the occupying Israeli state. Though it has yet to comment on Abu Dhabi’s move, Saudi Arabia has allowed UAE-Israel flights through its airspace.
Meanwhile, the dubbed ‘peace deal’ between the two states has done little to stop ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which saw consecutive days of bombing even after the announced move.
