A reminder of Kushner's activities in the Middle East to date:
In May
Trump signs Kushner-negotiated $100B Saudi arms deal
edition.cnn.com/2017/05/19/politics/jared-kushner-saudi-arms-deal-lockheed-martin/index.html
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (CNN)President Donald Trump signed a nearly $110 billion defense deal with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Saturday, signaling the United States' renewed commitment to its alliance with the Gulf kingdom and desire to bolster its counterterrorism partnership.
The deal was finalized in part thanks to the direct involvement of Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser. He shocked a high-level Saudi delegation earlier this month when he personally called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and asked if she would cut the price of a sophisticated missile detection system, according to a source with knowledge of the call.
In June
IS JARED KUSHNER PUNISHING QATAR OVER A SOURED REAL-ESTATE DEAL?
A new report shines light on the First Son-in-Law’s past dealings with the man who “owns” the sovereign state.
[...]The Intercept’s Ben Walsh, Ryan Grim, and Clayton Swisher report that beginning in 2015, before Kushner sold his stake in 666 Fifth Avenue to work in the White House, he and his father, Charles, negotiated directly with former Qatar prime minister turned billionaire investor Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, a.k.a. H.B.J., to refinance the property. Of H.B.J., the former emir of Qatar once said, “I may run this country, but he owns it.” According to The Intercept, the billionaire “ultimately agreed to invest at least $500 million” through his investment firm Al Mirqab, on the condition that Kushner Companies secure additional outside refinancing. And in the wake of the election, the president’s in-laws had no shortage of people wanting to do business with them for, oh, no particular reason at all. One such party was an opaque Chinese insurance firm called Anbang, with ties to Beijing’s political elite. Unfortunately, Anbang pulled out in the wake of deafening cries of conflicts of interest, and with them, went H.B.J. All of which casts the president’s recent behavior toward Qatar—a key U.S. ally that hosts a major U.S. military base—in a somewhat troubling light.
On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Egypt, and Bahrain suddenly “cut diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar . . . accusing it of supporting terrorism, meddling in their internal affairs and advancing the agenda of regional foe Iran”—all allegations Qatar denies. The following day, Trump stunned lawmakers on both sides of the aisle by unexpectedly joining in on the Qatar-bashing. “During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look!” he tweeted. And: “So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!”