Saudi Arabia remains enthusiastic about the prospects of peace with Israel, according to President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also served as a senior advisor to the president at the White House and was one of the key architects of the Abraham Accords.

“They would like to move forward with a deal with American and Israel,” Mr. Kushner told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business Sunday. 

Mr. Kushner, who spoke last week at a conference in the Arabian kingdom, claims that there is a general “sense of disgust” with the “tremendous terror attack.” He noted there is “care for the Palestinian civilians,” whom most people recognize as being subjugated by Hamas.

Mr. Kushner, who himself is a practicing Orthodox Jew, claimed that he felt safer in the ultra-conservative Sunni-monarchy than he would “on American campuses such as Columbia University.” 

The former presidential advisor is known to have warm ties with the Saudi regime, who have committed $2 billion to Kushner’s Affinity Partners Private Equity Fund from the Saudi Crown Prince’s investment fund. Saudi government officials overlooked detractors within the government in order to personally make the multi-billion dollar commitment, according to the New York Times piece. 

Mr. Kushner’s statements come in the wake of conflicting, earlier reports that a Saudi deal with Israel is being put on the back burner after the Hamas terror attack and Israel’s reaction. On October 19th, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia had frozen efforts to normalize relations with Israel while strengthening relations with Iran in order to curb broader conflict in the region. 

Mr. Kushner traveled to the Kingdom to speak at the Saudi Future Investment Initiative conference in the capital, Riyadh. The former adviser was outspoken in his criticism of Hamas and the protest movements in support of the group throughout the world during a panel at the conference.

“For the people who are protesting for the Palestinian people, I do think they are missing the point — which is that Israel is not the reason why these people are held back and not living the life they have the ability to become,” Kushner said regarding American university students.