Saudi Arabia will 'inevitably' normalise ties with Israel: Kushner

Kushner, who is also Trump's son-in-law and worked on a widely condemned Israel-Palestinian peace plan, gave an interview with CNBC on Friday, claiming that Saudi Arabia will "inevitably" normalise relations with Israel. 

"I do think we have other countries that are very interested in moving forward [with normalisation] and as that progresses I do think that it's an inevitability that Saudi Arabia and Israel will have fully normalised relations and they'll be able to do a lot of great things together," Kushner said.

Kushner added that the younger generation in Saudi Arabia wants to follow the UAE's footsteps and push forth with normalisation.

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"They see Israel as almost the Silicon Valley of the Middle East and they want to be connected to it as a trading partner, as a technology partner, as a security partner," he said, describing young Saudis. 

He added that older generations were "still stuck in conflicts of the past".

"You can't turn around a battleship overnight," he added. 

Arab countries that have been cosy with Israel welcomed the Abu Dhabi's normalisation, but regional power Saudi Arabia, which also has covert ties to Israel, has remained noticeably silent.

The Middle East felt shockwaves, after Trump announced on Thursday that the UAE had normalised ties with Israel, only the third between the Jewish state and an Arab country, after Egypt and Jordan.

Palestinians of all political leanings – from the secular Fatah of Mahmoud Abbas to the Hamas Islamist – have been unanimous in their condemnation of the deal, viewing the UAE as sacrificing the Palestinian cause to gain commercial relations with Israel.

While the agreement supposedly delays Israel's plans to unilaterally annex large swathes of the West Bank and Jordan Valley, many Palestinians feel betrayed.

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