Two-state solution needed for Palestine, Qatar emir tells Kushner

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has told White House adviser Jared Kushner that Doha supports a two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, to end the conflict with Israel.

The emir met US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in Doha on Wednesday following a US-brokered accord last month between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to normalise ties.

Sheikh Tamim told Kushner that Qatar remained committed to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, in which Arab nations offered Israel normalised ties in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians and full Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the 1967 Middle East War. 

“During the meeting, they reviewed the close strategic relations between the State of Qatar and the United States of America, in addition to discussing a number of issues of common concern, especially the peace process in the Middle East region,” Qatar News Agency reported.

Kushner visited the UAE this week with an Israeli delegation for normalisation talks before also travelling to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. 

The UAE is the third Arab country to reach such an agreement with Israel after Egypt and Jordan. Kushner hopes another Arab country will normalise ties within months.

Israel exchanged embassies with neighbours Egypt and Jordan under peace deals decades ago, but all other Arab states had demanded it first cede more land to the Palestinians. However, UAE’s decision to have an embassy prompted criticism from stakeholders across the region.

Palestinians have condemned the deal as a stab in the back by a major Arab player while they still lack a state of their own.

Turkey threatened to suspend relations with the UAE after normalisation was announced. 

Israel’s rival, Iran, has been scathing in its criticism. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted Tuesday that “the UAE betrayed the world of Islam, the Arab nations, the region’s countries, and Palestine”.