Israel-Palestine peace is possible: Kushner

Senior White House advisor Jared Kushner has said peace between Israel and Palestine was "achievable", although he added that the agreement should come from the countries of the region and not something imposed by the US.

"We do think it's achievable," Kushner said on Sunday, referring to an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Looking relaxed and upbeat, President Donald Trump's son-in-law made the remark during a session session with Haim Saban, one of the Democratic Party's biggest pro-Israel donors, at the annual Saban Forum in the Willard InterContinental Washington Hotel, reports Efe news.

Kushner has been working for months to find a solution to the historic conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, a project that led him to make an official trip to the Middle East in where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Although Kushner said that there was a specific peace plan being developed, he provided no details about it, saying: "We've been deliberate about not setting time-frames.

"The President has a very long career of accomplishing things that a lot of people say weren't possible," Kushner said of the thorny problem of Middle East peace, which none of Trump's presidential predecessors has been able to resolve.

The comments come at a particularly delicate moment, given that the Palestinian National Authority announced on November 21 the suspension of relations with the US over the closure of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's office in Washington.

In addition, controversy has swirled around rumours that the Trump administration could recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital with an eye toward moving the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv to the city sacred to both Jews and Muslims, as well as Christians.

The Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and oppose any change that legitimises Israeli control over that part of the city, which the Jewish state captured in 1967 during the Six Day War and annexed in 1980.

The seizure of East Jerusalem has not been recognized by the international community and no country has its embassy in Jerusalem.

All foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv, the country's business capital.

--IANS

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