Massad Boulos, President-elect Donald Trump’s advisor on Middle Eastern and Arab affairs, said that the United States would have to discuss laying out a “roadmap” to Palestinian statehood if it hopes to establish relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials have long made it known that they would not establish ties with Israel absent progress toward a Palestinian state. But for Boulos — a Lebanese-American billionaire and the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany — to emphasize the point is significant because other Trump appointees, in addition to Trump himself, are seen as close to the Israeli right, which rejects Palestinian statehood.

“I think the issue of a roadmap that would lead to a Palestinian state is an important part of the discussions between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” Boulos said in a wide-ranging interview last week with Le Point, a French magazine. “It is certainly a very important point.”

Boulos, 53, framed the focus on Palestinian statehood in terms of expanding the Abraham Accords, the 2020 normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab countries that were Trump’s signature foreign policy achievement in his first term.

Trump has spoken repeatedly about expanding the Abraham Accords. In the interview, Boulos said that many additional countries would initiate ties with Israel if Saudi Arabia did so.

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