Jared Kushner briefed incoming National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on the Trump administration’s Middle East policy, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, said Monday at a closed-door hearing in Israeli parliament.
Why it matters: According to Friedman, Kushner informed Sullivan in particular about the Abraham Accord process in which four Arab countries normalized relations with Israel, according to lawmakers who attended the trial. Trump’s advisers hope President-elect Biden will continue the process and encourage other countries such as Saudi Arabia to sign up.
Send the news: The call came about two weeks ago, a few days before Kushner traveled to Saudi Arabia for a summit of Gulf leaders. It is unclear whether Kushner brought a message from Sullivan to one of the leaders.
- White House envoy Avi Berkowitz also briefed a former Obama administration official who might be in line for a Middle East-related job under Biden on the standardization agreements, a Trump administration official tells me.
- According to Israeli lawmakers who attended Monday’s briefing, Friedman said he recently met with his Obama-era predecessor, Dan Shapiro, and briefed him on the Trump administration’s work in the Middle East over the past four years. year. Shapiro made it clear to Friedman during the meeting that he was not part of the Biden transition team.
Behind the scenes: The lawmakers who attended the briefing presented Friedman to the Knesset’s Foreign Relations Committee on what Biden’s government will and must do.
- Friedman said Biden is a friend of Israel. He also said he expected the Biden government to press Israel over settlements on the West Bank, resume aid to the Palestinian Authority and continue to increase Israel’s ties with China, an issue Friedman said has that Israel should take more seriously.
Friedman also told Biden will probably try to revive the Iran deal.
- He specifically expressed concern about the influence of former Secretary of State John Kerry and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Biden’s Iran policy, despite the fact that none of the Iranian portfolios will work, one Israeli legislature said.
- Friedman said Israel should not seek an immediate confrontation with Biden over Iran, but rather ask Biden’s government to begin talks with Israel, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries before deciding to return the nuclear deal. to give.
It does not surprise him that Friedman said that Biden should not roll back Trump’s policy on Jerusalem or Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights. He also claims that a battle with Israel over settlements will lead nowhere.
- Friedman claims that Saudi Arabia would have recognized Israel within a year if Trump had won re-election.
- But he did have one criticism of his boss, saying that Trump’s relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was occasionally ‘too hot’ and that Biden would be more critical of Turkey.
Go deeper: Netanyahu is demanding full control of Israel’s Iran policy, which is causing a setback.