“We’re inviting the Israeli business people and Palestinian business people. We’d like to make it as apolitical as possible,” the official said.
When the Bahrain conference was announced last month, U.S. officials initially suggested privately that Israeli government attendance in Bahrain would be an opportunity for Israel and some of its Gulf Arab neighbors to display in public the behind-the-scenes contacts that have grown in recent years, especially on security matters over their common enemy Iran.
After the White House announced last week that Egypt and Jordan had agreed to attend, some Israeli diplomats said Israeli government officials were also likely to attend. But no formal invitation materialized.
In Manama, Kushner and President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt are to unveil the economic part of Trump’s long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
The plan, touted by Trump as the “deal of the century,” is to encourage investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Arab donor countries before grappling with thorny political issues at the heart of the conflict.
Palestinian President Mohammed Abbas has heaped scorn on the conference and urged Arab governments not to attend
