Kushner Heading to Saudi Arabia, Qatar Amid Tensions Over Iranian Scientist Assassination

By Staff, Agencies

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is headed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week for talks in a region simmering with tension after the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

A senior administration official said on Sunday that Kushner is to meet the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman [MBS], in the Saudi city of NEOM, and the emir of Qatar in that country in the coming days. Kushner will be joined by Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook and Adam Boehler, chief executive of the US International Development Finance Corporation.

The visits would focus on resolving a dispute between Qatar and a Saudi-led alliance, the Wall Street Journal reported, but a number of issues could be on the agenda.

Kushner and his team helped negotiate normalization deals between the occupation entity and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan since August. The official said they would like to advance more such agreements before outgoing US President Donald Trump hands power to president-elect Joe Biden on 20 January.

Kushner’s trip comes after the assassination on Friday of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in Tehran by unidentified terrorists. Western and the Zionist governments claim Fakhrizadeh was the architect of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Days before the terrorist crime, Zionist prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, travelled to Saudi Arabia and met with MBS, a Zionist official said, in what was the first publicly confirmed visit by an ‘Israeli’ leader. Zionist media said they were joined by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.