Craig Barritt / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
Former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his deputy, Avi Berkowitz, were nominated on Sunday for the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the "Abraham Accords".
Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law, and Berkowitz, who was the Middle East envoy, were key figures in negotiating deals between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
The deals were announced in a four-month span between mid-August and mid-December and were the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East in 25 years.
Nominating the pair of former deputies to then-President Donald Trump was American attorney Alan Dershowitz, who was eligible to do so in his capacity as a professor emeritus of Harvard Law School.
Dershowitz had defended Trump in his first impeachment trial last year and said in a January 20 comment in the Wall Street Journal that the Senate should dismiss the article of impeachment against Trump over the January 6 storming of the US Capitol as he is no longer president.
In a statement, Kushner said he was honored to be nominated for the prize, which will be awarded in October.
Israeli raids targeting several areas across Lebanon on Tuesday killed 31 people and wounded 40 others, Lebanon's health ministry said, in one of the heaviest days of bombing in weeks.
Israel said on Wednesday it had killed Hamas's newly appointed armed wing chief in Gaza, days after it killed his predecessor, while intensifying military pressure in Gaza and expanding operations in Lebanon.
Syria's transitional leadership has located remnants of former President Bashar al-Assad's clandestine chemical weapons programme, including raw materials and munitions similar to those used to carry out deadly gas attacks during the country's long-running civil war.
A chemical tank imploded and ruptured at a Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility in the US state of Washington on Tuesday, resulting in one death and nine injuries, while nine others remained unaccounted for as of Tuesday night, authorities said.