As US President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner recently toured the Middle East discussing Trump's proposed peace plan, Russia was busy with its own efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
Given that the Trump administration hasn't revealed many details about the plan, Moscow presumes Kushner was promoting US brokerage of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and discussing recent developments in the Gaza Strip. Russia believes Trump's controversial decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem virtually ensures that the Palestinians will refuse to accept the United States as primary mediators in the peace process. That said, however, the United States still has a lot to offer the Palestinians and the region as a whole. Financial aid, in particular, is likely to convince the Arab leaders who Kushner was wooing to back Trump’s peace plan. There are already reports that four Mideast majors — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan — are onboard, even without the Palestinians' support.
A week after Kushner’s tour, Russia made its own moves. On June 25, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin participated in a UN committee meeting about contributions to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Vershinin stressed that, given the agency's significant humanitarian work, it's important to maintain funding despite the United States having cut its contributions.
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Although there is a general structure within the UN, the UNHCR, that works with refugees all over the world — as opposed to UNRWA which focuses exclusively on Palestinians — Moscow is still pro-active in supporting the latter.
“Successful, uninterrupted and predictable funding of the agency that performs an important humanitarian function for Palestinian refugees is conducive to the Middle East settlement, based on the generally recognized norms of international law in line with the concept of building two states,” said Vershinin.
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