Trump meets Blair, Kushner on Gaza policy

Reuters :

President Donald Trump presided over a policy meeting on Israel’s war in Gaza and post-war plans for the Palestinian territory on Wednesday with input from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Trump Middle East envoy Jared Kushner, a senior White House official said.

Trump, top White House officials, Blair and Kushner discussed the hostage crisis, plans to escalate food aid deliveries, post-war plans and more, the official told Reuters.

The official described the session as “simply a policy meeting,” the type frequently held by Trump and his team. Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, was a key White House adviser on Middle East in Trump’s first term. Blair was prime minister during the 2003 Iraq war over which he has faced widespread criticism.

Trump had promised a quick end to the war in Gaza during his presidential campaign but a resolution has been elusive seven months into his second term.

Trump’s term began with a ceasefire which lasted two months, until Israeli strikes killed around 400 Palestinians on Mar 18. More recently, images of starving Palestinians in Gaza, including children, have shocked the world and fed criticism of US ally Israel over the deteriorating conditions.
In February, Trump proposed a US takeover of Gaza and a permanent displacement of Palestinians from the coastal territory.

The plan was globally condemned and labelled as an “ethnic cleansing” proposal by rights experts and the United Nations. Forcible displacement is illegal under international law. Trump cast the plan, which he has not publicly mentioned in recent weeks, as a re-development idea to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

The plan echoed an idea that Kushner floated a year earlier to clear Gaza of its Palestinian inhabitants and turn it into a waterfront property.