(Ramallah) Saudi Arabia sent an official delegation to the occupied West Bank on Tuesday for the first time in more than thirty years to assure the Palestinians that it would defend their cause even in the event of normalization between Riyadh and Israel.
A sign of the ongoing rapprochement between these two countries, Israel announced in the afternoon that its Minister of Tourism Haïm Katz was in Saudi Arabia for two days. This is the first public visit by an Israeli minister to the kingdom.
A little more than a year before the presidential election in the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, two allies of Washington, are being urged by the government of American President Joe Biden to normalize their relations, in the wake of the so-called agreements. ‘Abraham through which Israel established diplomatic relations in 2020 with three Arab countries, under the leadership of Mr. Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.
The Palestinian Authority had described this process as a “stab in the back” which put an end to a facade of Arab League unity on the Palestinian question.
“Fundamental pillar”
The arrival of Saudi Ambassador Nayef al-Sudaïri to Ramallah on Tuesday marks the first visit of an official Saudi delegation to the West Bank since the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace accords of September 1993, which allowed the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. .
Following a meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, Mr. Sudaïri assured him: “The Palestinian question is a fundamental pillar” of Saudi foreign policy.
“It is certain that the initiative [de paix] Arab, which was presented by the kingdom in 2002, is the cornerstone of any future agreement,” he told the press.
In March 2002, Arab League leaders adopted a Saudi plan advocating an Israeli withdrawal from all territories occupied since 1967 in exchange for normalization between Arab countries and Israel.
“The interest of the crown prince [Mohammed ben Salmane, dirigeant de facto du royaume saoudien] for the Palestinian cause is not new, but he wishes peace and stability for the region,” added Mr. Sudaïri.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Amman, Mr. Sudaïri was appointed non-resident ambassador for the Palestinian Territories in August and presented his credentials to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday in Ramallah.
Mr. Abbas declared on September 21 at the UN that there could be no peace in the Middle East “without the Palestinian people enjoying all of their legitimate national rights”.
If it takes shape, the scenario of normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, guardian of the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, could reshuffle the cards of Middle Eastern geopolitics.
Terms
Riyadh has given signs, in recent months, of a possible change in its position aligned with the 2002 Arab peace initiative. Through the United States, the country has made known its conditions for a normalization of its relations with Israel, including security guarantees from Washington and American assistance in the field of civil nuclear power, according to sources close to the negotiations.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and has subjected the Gaza Strip to a strict blockade since the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas took power there in 2007.
In the Gaza Strip, 11 people were injured Tuesday by Israeli fire targeting Hamas positions near the fence separating the Palestinian enclave from Israel where violent demonstrations by Palestinians were taking place, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in this territory.
Mr. Netanyahu, who judged on September 22 that “a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia was within reach,” assured Tuesday that “many Middle Eastern states want peace with Israel.”
In Riyadh, Mr. Katz is due to attend a meeting of the World Tourism Organization and wants to take the opportunity to “advance […] Israel’s foreign relations,” according to a statement from his office.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi is also due to travel to Saudi Arabia next week for an international conference, his services said.
By 2020, Israel had established formal ties with three new Arab states (after Egypt and Jordan): the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, under the Abraham Accords.
The prospect of a “two-state” peace solution envisaged by the Oslo process seems more distant than ever since the entry into office, at the end of December, of an Israeli government under the leadership of Mr. Netanyahu with the support from the far right, and as a seemingly endless cycle of violence continues.