(Israel Hayom/JNS) The Trump administration will not present its long-awaited Middle East peace plan before the Israeli election, set for April 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. 

The rollout for the plan, which U.S. President Donald Trump has dubbed the “deal of the century,” has been postponed several times. The deal is being crafted by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt.

Netanyahu, who is on a state visit to Brazil, told reporters that Washington seeks to present the plan “at a time they believe would be the most conducive to its success. They believe that presenting it during election time would undermine its chances.”

A senior official on the prime minister’s entourage to Brazil told Israel Hayom that there are growing assessments in Israel that the strikes on Iranian assets in Syria, which foreign media often attribute to the Israeli Air Force, have been successful in pushing the Islamic republic out of the war-torn country.

He also said that it appears that “Operation Northern Shield” to eliminate the grid of Hezbollah terror tunnels snaking under the Israel-Lebanon border has prevented a war with the Iranian-backed Shi’ite terrorist group.