Senior Arab officials: We will go 'above Abbas' head'

Senior officials in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have conveyed to US emissaries Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt that moderate Arab states will not prevent the administration from presenting the peace plan, even without the consent of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, according to Israel Hayom.

A senior Egyptian source told the newspaper that it was a joint position of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that the axis of the moderate Arab states would not object to the plan being presented "above Abu Mazen's head." However, the senior official stressed that the American emissaries had heard in the Arab countries a unified message that "the Arab countries will not lend a hand to harming the quality of life of the Palestinians because of the mistaken strategic conduct of Abu Mazen and his people, and it was made clear to Kushner and Greenblatt that the Palestinians have a right to an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital."