More than a year after US President Donald Trump’s electoral victory, the fog covering his Middle East peace initiative is far from dissipating. According to diplomatic sources, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said not long ago that he is busy “wrapping up” last-minute details of the initiative before its launched. It would be a matter of a few weeks, he said. Meanwhile, several weeks have passed and the initiative is still under wraps.

Al-Monitor has learned that Trump and his staff's original plan was to launch the initiative in January 2018, one year after Trump assumed the presidency. It was supposed to take place in an impressive ceremony in Washington with the participation of Israel (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) and the Palestinians (President Mahmoud Abbas), of course, as well as high-level representatives from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Jordan. Middle Eastern countries that do not have official diplomatic relations with Israel were indeed expected to participate along with high-level representatives from the Quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — and the international community. The January deadline does not, however, appear to be realistic. The intention is to delay the launch until March 2018.

The approach adopted by Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s Middle East emissaries, is a direct continuation of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s initiative: Sisi had planned on launching a large regional peace initiative should former Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog join Netanyahu’s government. Instead, however, Avigdor Liberman, not Herzog, ended up joining the government in May 2016, as defense minister.

Netanyahu had placed a call to Sisi, saying that he stood behind his commitments, even though Herzog did not join the coalition. For a change, Netanyahu followed through on what he promised. In a press conference when Liberman joined the government, the prime minister reaffirmed his commitment to the two-state solution. The two of them then mumbled something in favor of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, with reservations, of course.