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Kushner launches ‘Abraham Accords Institute for Peace’ to deepen Arab-Jewish ties

It will focus on increasing trade, tourism and other programs to foster interpersonal connections between the five signatory countries.

Senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner boards El Al Flight 971 from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi together with the U.S.-Israeli delegation, at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Aug. 31, 2020. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.
Senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner boards El Al Flight 971 from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi together with the U.S.-Israeli delegation, at Ben-Gurion International Airport, Aug. 31, 2020. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.

Jared Kushner is forming an organization to help strengthen ties between the countries that signed the Abraham Accords normalization agreement in the fall of 2020, the group announced on Wednesday.

Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump who served as a senior adviser in the Trump administration and helped broker the accords, is creating the Abraham Accords Institute for Peace to promote agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

The organization is expected to focus on increasing trade, tourism and other programs to foster interpersonal connections between the five signatory countries.

Other co-founders of the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization include former U.S. envoy Avi Berkowitz, who also helped broker the Abraham Accords; Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors to Washington Yousef Al Otaiba and Abdulla R. Al-Khalifa; Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi; and Israeli-American businessman Haim Saban, a major donor to the Democratic Party. The executive director will be Rob Greenway, formerly the senior Middle East adviser on Trump’s national security council.

The group is still being formed, and will include representatives from Morocco and Sudan, Axios reported. Kushner also reportedly wants to bring on board more Democrats and advisers from the region.

The group has a five-year mandate and will be funded through private donations, according to Axios.

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