Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz told United States President Donald Trump that the Kingdom wanted to see a fair and permanent solution for the Palestinians, the kingdom’s state news agency reported on Monday.
Saudi Arabia approached US with Palestine issue which was the starting point for its 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, following a US-brokered deal last month under which the United Arab Emirates agreed to become the third Arab state after Egypt and Jordan to normalise ties with Israel.
Arab nations, as a part of proposal, have offered Israel normalised ties in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians and full Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
During the call, Trump told King Salman that he welcomed that decision, and that the two also discussed regional security, a White House spokesman said.
The UAE-Israel deal was condemned by the Palestinians and the move was said to be a “stab in the back”.
On Sunday, leaders of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and the Palestinian Hamas group met to discuss the US push for diplomatic normalisation, the movement said. Hamas chief Ismail Haniya and Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Iran-backed Shia Hezbollah movement, stressed the “stability” of the “axis of resistance” against Israel.