Netanyahu: "We will not allow Iran to destroy peace with the Arab world."
Netanyahu, Kushner hold Sunday news conference in Jerusalem. Netanyahu says Palestinian "veto" on peace is over.
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a news conference Sunday afternoon with Jared Kushner, special advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, and U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
The Americans and their team landed in Israel 24 hours ahead of an historic, first-ever commercial flight between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi. Kushner and O'Brien will be leading an American delegation on this flight, to be chartered by El Al, Israel's national airlines.
"For too long the Palestinians have had a veto on peace," Netanyahu said. "Not only between Israel and the Palestinians but between Israel and the Arab world. If we have to wait for the Palestinians, we’ll have to wait forever. No longer.”
O'Brien said he hopes the Jewish state will soon establish diplomatic ties with other regional states as it did with the United Arab Emirates on Aug. 13.
Kushner said Trump is writing a new script regarding the Middle East.
“Four years ago, my father-in-law asked me to work on peace in the Middle East. I’ve given it my all. There’s still much work to accomplish, but the Abraham Accords is a giant step forward. To play a role in [the normalization deal’s] creation — and I say this as the grandson of two Holocaust survivors — it means more to me and to my family than I can ever express. We will continue to pursue peace between Israel, the biblical homeland of the Jewish people, and its Arab and Muslim neighbors and I have never been more hopeful about peace.”