JERUSALEM — Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser on the Middle East, said the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, is afraid to make peace with Israel, bears responsibility for the deteriorating situation in Gaza, and is putting his own political survival ahead of his people’s needs.

Kushner, who is on a multination trip to the Middle East, made his comments in an interview published early Sunday by the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds. He said the Trump administration was “almost done’’ preparing its peace plan and would roll it out soon.

He appeared to be attempting to goad Abbas into talks the leader has vowed to boycott, while doing pre-emptive damage control in the event that Abbas does not relent.

But Kushner offered little in the way of enticements to Abbas. Asked what the leaders of other Arab nations wanted to see in an Israel-Palestinian settlement, the White House aide mentioned nothing about a sovereign Palestinian state or of Palestinian refugees.

He also did not mention Israeli­ settlements on the West Bank or using the 1967 lines as a starting point to draw borders, and nothing about East Jerusalem serving as the Palestinian capital. He instead spoke of a potential Palestinian capital “in East Jerusalem.’’

Kushner alluded to Arab nations’ desire that Al-Aqsa Mosque “remain open to all Muslims who wish to worship’’ — but said nothing about its being in the custodianship of a Palestinian state, suggesting it could remain under Israeli control in the administration’s plan.

Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, had angrily rejected US-led negotiations after Trump reversed decades of US policy in December by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Since then, Trump has cut aid for Palestinian refugees and moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

Kushner’s interview, published on the website of Al-Quds after Kushner met twice over two days in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, was replete with criticism of Abbas, the aging, unhealthy, and highly unpopular Palestinian leader. A translation of the interview was released by the White House.

Asked by the newspaper’s editor, Walid Abu-Zalaf, about an Abbas spokesman’s dismissal of Kushner’s trip as a “waste of time’’ that was “bound to fail,’’ Kushner said Palestinian leaders were “saying those things because they are scared we will release our peace plan and the Palestinian people will actually like it.’’

Kushner questioned Abbas’s capacity to make peace and said the “global community’’ is frustrated with Abbas. “He has his talking points, which have not changed in the last 25 years,’’ Kushner said. “To make a deal, both sides will have to take a leap and meet somewhere between their stated positions. I am not sure President Abbas has the ability to do that.’’

Abbas has raged at the Trump administration, Kushner observed, but he questioned whose interests that served. “There are a lot of sharp statements and condemnations, but no ideas or efforts with prospects of success,’’ Kushner said. “Those who are more skeptical say President Abbas is only focused on his political survival and cementing a legacy of not having compromised, than on bettering the lives of the Palestinian people.’’

Kushner said the Trump administration is determined to find solutions to the “core issues’’ of the conflict — including Jerusalem, borders, and refugees — “that both sides can live with.’’ But he said that “without creating a pathway to better life,’’ no solution would be durable.