Former senior White House adviser Jared Kushner lamented on Monday the failure of US President Joe Biden's administration to expand agreements between Arab countries and Israel under the Abraham Accords, which Donald Trump brokered in 2020.
At an event in Washington on the second anniversary of the accords, Mr Kushner said: “The biggest disappointment so far is that more countries haven't been brought into it … we had about six active discussions that we had going on, I think that there's a lot more to build on."
The accords normalised relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
“I do hope that the current administration will focus on that and then work to do that,” Mr Kushner, who is also Mr Trump's son-in-law, said.
“Because once the whole Arab-Israeli conflict is over, I think that you will have an era of prosperity and peacefulness in that region that will endure for a very, very long time.”
The Biden administration has repeatedly voiced its intention to expand the number of countries in the accords but no formal agreements have been reached.
Mr Kushner attributed the success of the accords to the Trump team’s ability to inject unconventional thinking into resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.
He also rejected the idea of viewing the Middle East through a sectarian Sunni-Shiite lens.
“We created a set of situations where we were putting the different leaders in a prism when we came into the job. Everyone said the Middle East is really about Sunni-Shia divides,” Mr Kushner said.
But he argued that the fundamental divide in the region was between leaders “who want to give their people better lives and give their people opportunity and then leaders who are trying to justify their existence based on some religious perversion or some, you know, scapegoating of somebody else”.
The former White House adviser defended Mr Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, saying the conventional thinking that disaster would inevitably follow these decisions proved to be incorrect.
“The next morning [after moving embassy], the sun rose, and the same thing happened again with pulling out of the Iran deal, and people said, ‘If you do this, it's going to lead to World War Three, it's going to be disaster’,” he said.
He also said that pulling out of the deal in 2018 blocked funding to Iran that would have otherwise reached its proxies in the region such as Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Abraham Accords — in pictures
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Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, speaks to Donald Trump, US president at the time, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office in September 2020. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation -
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, meets Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state at the time. Wam -
Sheikh Abdullah and Mr Pompeo in Washington. Wam -
Sheikh Abdullah visits Washington in September last year. Wam -
Sheikh Abdullah, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, US President Donald Trump, centre, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sign the Abraham Accord at the White House South Lawn. MOFAIC -
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump at the White House. MOFAIC -
Sheikh Abdullah, Mr Al Zayani and Mr Netanyahu at the White House during the Abraham Accord signing ceremony. MOFAIC -
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Mr Netanyahu, Mr Trump and Mr Al Zayani wave from the Truman Balcony at the White House. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Mr Al Zayani, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump sign the Abraham Accord. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Mr Al Zayani, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump after the signing ceremony. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Mr Al Zayani, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump after the signing ceremony. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah speaks from the Truman Balcony at the White House during the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accord. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah speaks as Mr Trump looks on before the signing of Abraham Accord on the South Lawn of the White House. AP -
Sheikh Abdullah looks on from the White House as Mr Trump speaks at the Abraham Accord signing ceremony, also attended by Mr Al Zayani and Mr Netanyahu. AP -
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani stand on the Blue Room Balcony during the signing ceremony. AP -
Sheikh Abdullah and Mr Al Zayani shortly before participating in the signing of the Abraham Accord. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah, with Mr Netanyahu, left, and Mr Al Zayani at the signing of the Abraham Accord on the South Lawn of the White House. AFP -
US President Donald Trump speaks from the Truman Balcony at the White House during the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accord. AFP -
President Donald Trump walks to the Abraham Accord signing ceremony at the White House with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani. AP -
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at the White House to attend the Abraham Accord signing ceremony hosted by President Donald Trump. EPA -
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, meets US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House before the signing of Abraham Accord. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, in the Oval Office. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, meets US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah with Mr Trump in the Oval Office. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, with by President Donald Trump at the White House. Mustafa Alrawi / The National -
The UAE delegation led by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, with US President Donald Trump at the White House. Mustafa Alrawi / The National -
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, is welcomed to the White House by US President Donald Trump. EPA -
Sheikh Abdullah and Mr Trump outside the White House. AFP -
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed speaks to Mr Trump after arriving at the White House. Reuters -
White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner walks away following a television interview on the North Lawn at the White House in Washington. Reuters -
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome the arrival of Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara on the North Lawn of the White House in Washington DC. AFP -
A delegation of senior UAE officials led by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, prepares to depart for the White House to sign the Abraham Accord. MOFAIC -
US President Donald Trump welcomes Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani. AFP -
Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani arrives at the White House in Washington DC. AFP -
US President Donald Trump welcomes Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani on the North Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC. AFP -
Preparations at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accord. -
Preparations under way at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accord. -
Preparations under way at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accord. -
Preparation at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accord. The National
