Yisrael Katz
Yisrael KatzKobi Richter/TPS

Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) on Friday visited the US and met with Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s Senior Representative for International Negotiations.

“We discussed issues like Iran, Gaza, the Bahrain conference and the cooperation between our two countries. US-Israel relations are stronger than ever!” tweeted Katz after the meeting.

Greenblatt tweeted about the meeting as well, writing, “Pleased to meet with Israeli Minister Yisrael Katz today. Productive meeting – we discussed Iran, Gaza, the Bahrain economic workshop, the unbreakable U.S.-Israel relationship & the U.S.’ unwavering commitment to Israeli security.”

The meeting between the two comes ahead of the economic conference in Bahrain later this month, in which the Trump administration plans to make public the economic provisions of its peace plan for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Little is known about the political component of the peace plan, but President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who along with Greenblatt is one of the authors of the plan, indicated in April that the plan would not focus on the two-state solution.

"If people focus on the old traditional talking points we will never make progress," Kushner said at the time, adding, "What we will put out is different.”

Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the UN, said this week that Israelis have nothing to fear from the Trump administration’s peace plan.

Speaking to the Israel Hayom newspaper, Haley said that she had read the administration’s peace plan, and thinks that “it is very thoughtful, and very well done and it very much takes into account both sides’ vulnerabilities and both sides’ wants.”

“Through the Middle East plan, one of the main goals that Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt focused on was to not hurt the national security interests of Israel. They understand the importance of security, they understand the importance of keeping Israel safe,” she said.

“I think everybody needs to go into it with an open mind, everybody should want a peace plan,” continued Haley. “Everybody should want to make way for a better situation in Israel and I think it can happen. So rather than pushing back against what we don’t know, I hope everybody would lean in on what the possibilities of what the peace plan could look like and think of a better life for everyone.”

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)