Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser, met Kuwait’s ambassador in Washington and expressed his frustration with the Persian Gulf nation’s position on Palestine at the United Nations Security Council, according to Kuwait-based daily Al Rai.
Citing an unnamed US diplomatic source, the newspaper said Kushner conveyed the Trump administration’s “annoyance” over a recently drafted Kuwaiti resolution that called for the protection of Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
Kuwait drafted the resolution after dozens of Palestinian demonstrators were killed by Israeli forces last month in Gaza.
Kushner reportedly told ambassador Salem Abdullah al-Jaber al-Sabah that Kuwait’s position had personally embarrassed him in front of US officials and “friends of America who support [US] efforts to solve the crisis.”
The president’s son-in-law said in the five-minute meeting that he had been working alongside Egypt and Saudi Arabia on a joint Arab-US statement regarding the situation in Gaza before the Kuwaiti initiative.
According to the report, Kushner said he wanted Kuwait to maintain its role as mediator in the ongoing Persian Gulf crisis, despite some parties’ objections to its diplomatic efforts.
An official source at Kuwait’s foreign ministry dismissed Al Rai’s report, saying ties between Kuwait and the United States are “deep-rooted”.
Last week, the US was alone in voting down the Kuwait-drafted UNSC resolution on protecting Palestinians from Israeli live fire. Ten countries, including Russia and France, voted in favor of the resolution.
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