Kushner launches institute for normalisation between Arab states and Israel

Jared Kushner is to launch the Abraham Accords Institute for Peace to work on deepening the normalisation agreements between Israel and Arab countries during his father-in-law Donald Trump’s time in the White House, Axios news website reported on Wednesday.

Kushner was instrumental in bringing the so-called Abraham Accords to fruition. The normalisation deals were arguably Trump’s main foreign policy achievement and the biggest breakthrough for relations between Israel and the Arab world for 25 years.

According to the American news website, the institute is non-partisan, non-profit and will have a five-year mandate. It is being funded through private donations, and will focus on “increasing trade and tourism” between the five signatory countries: Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco and Sudan, and developing programmes to foster “people-to-people” connections.

Former White House envoy Avi Berkowitz; Israeli-American businessman and Democratic Party donor Haim Saban; the UAE and Bahraini ambassadors to Washington, Yousef Al-Otaiba and Abdulla Al-Khalifa respectively; as well as Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi are all set to be involved in the project.

READ: Kushner’s Torah scroll gift taken to Bahrain synagogue