Jared Kushner expected to be pivotal to Trump admin’s Middle East efforts

CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is seen as being pivotal to the incoming administration’s Middle East efforts, even though he is not likely to take a formal job within it, regional diplomats and Trump allies told CNN.

Trump’s Middle East team has been taking shape this week after he selected a former Republican governor and a close friend and real-estate developer to take on key roles. But the close relationships that Kushner developed with leaders in the region over Trump’s first four years in office and maintained in recent years will be hard to replicate, sources told CNN.

Some former diplomats and critics of the Trump administration point out that Kushner has significant financial interests in the region, but many regional diplomats recognize the value of the deep relationships he has formed.

“No one on the incoming team has what Jared has, and that is trust. Jared earned it, he didn’t have it at the beginning. He earned it. That takes time to build,” said a regional diplomat who worked with Kushner during his time at the White House, noting that Kushner was relatively unknown to most players in the region before he became chief Middle East negotiator in the first Trump administration.

Those sentiments are widespread.

“Friendships are forever in this region,” said an Israeli source who dealt with the first Trump administration, speaking to the deep personal relationships that Kushner developed – and maintained – with leaders throughout the region. “My assumption is that his role is much more in his hands than anybody else’s.”

Kushner is not likely to assume a formal role in Trump’s second administration, but he is likely to serve as an outside advisor, said two sources familiar with his current thinking.

Kushner is currently fully available to brief and advise all of those who will be working on issues related to the Middle East, said a source familiar with the situation, adding that he believes further progress is possible under Trump’s leadership.

Both Kushner and Trump would like to see a continuation of efforts to normalize relations between Israel and other Arab states following the Abraham Accords, a pact which normalized relations between Isreal and the United Arab Emirates during Trump’s first term – an effort made much more complicated given the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Since Trump left office in 2021, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have moved to Miami and largely exited politics. Kushner founded an investment fund, Affinity Partners, shortly after leaving Washington with major backing from sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf.

Kushner has also…