Former senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and his deputy, Avi Berkowitz, were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in negotiating four standardization agreements between Israel and Arab nations known as “Abraham’s Agreements”.
Appointing the pair of former deputies to then President Donald Trump was American lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who was eligible to do so as a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Berkowitz, sent to the Middle East, were key figures in the negotiation of agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
The deals were announced between mid-August and mid-December and were the most significant diplomatic advances in the Middle East in 25 years, as the region prepares for prolonged confrontation with Iran.
Kushner said in a statement that he was honored to be nominated for the award, which will be awarded in October.
President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to review all national security agreements reached during the Trump administration, including arms packages for the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
There have been some complaints from lawmakers about the agreement with Morocco because, to make Morocco agree, the United States recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region.
Trump stepped down on January 20 under a cloud of controversy, potentially impacting whether the advisors would receive the award.