T. Belman. This is an enormous setback for Trump’s plan to bring peace to ME. We are back to square one. It is also a setback to the prospect of Israel extending sovereignty to 30% of Judea and Samaria with Trump’s approval. Now we have to wait to see if a peace Treaty with UAE is signed. It seems to be that it is being delayed.
It is more important for Israel to extend sovereignty than to have peace treaty with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman speaks to Trump, says kingdom wants to see a solution based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
By Elad Benari, INN
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz told US President Donald Trump on Sunday there would be no normalization with Israel without Palestinian statehood, Reuters reported, citing the kingdom’s state news agency.
The leaders spoke by phone following the historic US-brokered accord last month under which the United Arab Emirates agreed to become the third Arab state to normalize ties with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.
King Salman told Trump he appreciated US efforts to support peace and that Saudi Arabia wanted to see a fair and permanent solution to the Palestinian issue based on the Arab Peace Initiative proposed by the kingdom in 2002.
Saudi Arabia insists that Israel accept the 2002 Saudi Peace Initiative, which stipulates that 22 Arab countries will normalize ties with Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria.
Israel to date has rejected the 2002 Saudi proposal due to the fact that it calls for Israel to accept the so-called “right of return” for millions of descendants of Arabs who fled pre-state Israel, effectively bringing an end to the Jewish state.
US President Donald Trump recently said he expected Saudi Arabia to join the Israel-UAE deal. A senior member of the Saudi royal family later stressed that Saudi Arabia’s price for normalizing relations with Israel is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, but there have been rumors in recent years of rapprochement between the two countries. Saudi officials have denied those reports.
While Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel, last week the kingdom said it would allow flights between UAE and Israel, including by Israeli airliners, to use its airspace.
Trump is undaunted. He said that negotiations are all about changing a “no” to a “yes”. Besides, since then Saudi Arabia has given Israel permission to fly in its airspace and has allowed its vassel Bahrain to sign on to the deal.. Remember, with leaders and politicians, its what they do not what they say that counts.
Naturally Salman would insist on The Arab Initiative, since it was a purely Saudi plan. I notice that he speaks more and more rarely, and then only is reported as mentioning the Arab Peace Initiative.
Ther were reports that even before he became king he had already been suffering cognitive decline from Alzheimers.. And that was some yeare ago already.
@ Zachary:
no such thing as a Palestinian and Judea belongs to the Jews
Looks like the Saudis have restored and reaffirmed the “Palestinian veto.”