Russia has criticized an upcoming conference in Bahrain at which the Trump administration will launch the economic part of its Middle East peace plan.
Context: The Foreign Ministry in Moscow claims the conference is aimed at "imposing an alternative vision" for the peace process, but will fail like the U.S.-led anti-Iran conference in Warsaw last February. China and Russia notified the Palestinians several days ago they would boycott the conference.
President Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner, the head of the White House's Israeli-Palestinian peace team, traveled to the Middle East on Monday night on a visit to Morocco, Jordan and Israel, a senior White House official told me.
Why it matters: Kushner will arrive in Israel on Thursday, meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the tail end of a coalition crisis that could lead to new elections. Netanyahu's deadline for forming a new government is set to expire on Wednesday night, and new elections in Israel could be yet another hurdle for the Trump administration's peace plan.
Brexit uncertainty has helped New York City overtake London to be regarded as the world’s preeminent financial center, a survey of financial executives by Duff & Phelps published Tuesday shows.
By the numbers: New York is now seen as the world’s leading financial center by just over half of the 183 executives surveyed for the annual Global Regulatory Outlook — a 10% rise from 2018. Only 36% see London as the top center, down 17% from last year.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said today at a ceremony in Ramallah that the Trump administration's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan "will go to hell."
Why it matters: The White House peace team, led by Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner, is planning to launch the economic part of the peace plan at a conference in Bahrain less than a month from now. Abbas's harsh language against the peace plan and his lobbying against the Bahrain conference show the deep crisis in U.S.-Palestinian relations, which are probably broken beyond repair as long as Trump or Abbas are in office.
Russia and China are going to boycott the U.S.-led Bahrain conference which will launch the economic part of the Trump administration's peace plan, Palestinian and Chinese officials say.
Why it matters: The U.S. is trying to get countries to attend, while the Palestinians — who are boycotting the conference — are trying to convince countries not to show up. The Russian and Chinese decision is a big achievement for the Palestinians, although it is mainly driven by Russian and Chinese tensions with the U.S. rather than by Palestinian interests.
In an unprecedented move, President Trump publicly intervened in the domestic political crisis in Israel and backed Prime Minister Netanyahu's efforts to form a coalition 48 hours before the deadline for putting together a new government.
Why it matters: Trump's move is unprecedented because it is an intervention in coalition negotiations in a different country in order to help one the political players, and more so because it is done publicly.
North Korea called U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton a "war monger" and "defective human product" Monday for saying Pyongyang's recent missile tests violated UN Security Council resolutions, AP reports, citing state media.
Why it matters: As North Korea criticized Bolton for his comments, President Trump said at a news conference in Tokyo "good respect" has been built between the U.S. and North Korea. "I personally think lots of good things will come with North Korea. I may be right. I may be wrong,” he said. "We’ll see what happens."
President Trump told a Tokyo news conference Monday he supports Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to potentially open a dialogue between the U.S. and Iran.
"I know that the prime minister and Japan have a very good relationship with Iran so we’ll see what happens. The prime minister’s already spoken to me about that and I do believe that Iran would like to talk — and if they’d like to talk, we’d like to talk also. We’ll see what happens ... nobody wants to see terrible things happen, especially me."
