Saudi King Reaffirms Support for Palestinians after Israel Comments
Saudi King Salman reaffirmed support for Palestinians to U.S. President Donald Trump, state media said Tuesday, after his son and heir apparent said Israel has a "right" to a homeland.
The king "reaffirmed the kingdom's steadfast position towards the Palestinian issue and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital," the official Saudi Press Agency said.
The king also emphasized the need to advance the Middle East peace process in a phone call with Trump, which came after Israeli forces killed 17 Palestinians last week during a demonstration on its border with Gaza.
Saudi Arabia and Israel have no formal diplomatic relations, but behind the scenes their ties appear to have improved in recent years against what they see as a common Iranian threat.
Israel's conflict with the Palestinians has long proved an obstacle to a full rapprochement, however, as Riyadh still supports the Palestinian claim to sovereignty.
But Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman indicated a notable shift in the kingdom's position in an interview published Monday with U.S. news magazine The Atlantic.
The prince was asked by the magazine whether the "Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their ancestral homeland?"
"I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation," said the prince, who is on a three-week U.S. tour.
"I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land," he added.
"But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations."
Since 2002, Saudi Arabia has been the main sponsor of the Arab Peace Initiative, which envisions a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
No senior Saudi official is known to have previously accepted that Israel has a right to any land beyond the practical need to secure a lasting deal.
7 years
Regarding refugees, Israel/World can compensate the excellent Lebanese school system to educate Palestinian kids and inculcate democracy, human values, and tolerance into their mind so Gulf countries such as Bahrain (who need to increase its Sunni population) can offer them citizenship and benefit from their education and world-wide diaspora connections. It is a win-win proposal. Germany and France fought each other for thousand years causing incomparable level of destruction and death but found nirvana and mutually beneficial friendship when they both joined the EU and became their respective best trading partner. It is time to plan for a bright future for our region by having a Middle Eastern Political and Economic Community (MEPEC) similar to EU that includes both Iran and Israel so we can usher the Golden Age of the Middle East.
7 years
As I have stated before, peace between Israel and Lebanon would lead to co-operation in many fields. Firstly the Syrian occupiers thwarted this in the late 1980's and now Hizaballah is preventing this happening.
Lebanon could receive electricity from the Israeli National Grid, cutting out all the power cuts that the country has been afflicted with for years. Lebanon and Israel could co-operation in the field of natural gas with pipelines sending off the gas to Europe. Then what about tourism, learning new ideas in agriculture, industry, infrastructure, education and many other fields.
Peace treaties are by definition between enemies not friends. Egypt and Jordan have signed a peace treaty with Israel. The truth Hizbollah tries to hide is that a Lebanon-Israel peace treaty based on resolution of Palestinian refugees and full reparation of damages caused by Israel that must be reinvested in deprived area and infrastructure will primarily benefit the Shia community and towns. A Peace treaty will make primarily South Lebanon lands extremely valuable and the preferred location of future joint startups as there is good technical, capital, professional, innovative, labor and entrepreneurial synergy between Lebanon and Israel to combine talents for an unprecedented economic boost and world reach. But of course Lebanon’s win will be Iran/Hizbollah’s loss as they need the Great Satan to keep scaring their people, oppressing freedom, and diverting attention of their misery.