BICOM

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud reiterated his support for a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, during a meeting with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday in Riyadh.

According to Saudi state news agency SPA, the two leaders also discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian territories. A dozen Saudi princes and officials also attended the meeting. The PA’s official news site, Wafa, reports: “During their meeting, the President briefed [Salman] on the latest developments and contacts being made by [Abbas] to protect Jerusalem from the dangers posed by the announcement by US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.” Wafa also reports that Abbas also met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman during his visit.

Saudi Arabia called US President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem announcement “unjustified and irresponsible.” However, it didn’t send a head of state or foreign minister to the meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened in Istanbul to agree next steps and formally recognise East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.

In an article last week in Foreign Policy, the Washington Institute’s Robert Satloff described his recent meeting with Mohammed Bin-Salman and said he did not seem overly concerned by Trump’s announcement: “He limited himself to a single word of disappointment about the President’s decision — literally — and then quickly turned to where Riyadh and Washington could work together to limit the fallout and restore hope to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He didn’t stop there. On a day widely characterised as one of the darkest for U.S. relations with the Arab world in decades, Mohammed bin Salman offered a very different vision for both the Saudi-American relationship and a potential for Saudi-Israeli partnership.”

Abbas is also expected to visit Iran shortly. Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, who recently visited Iran, said he had discussed arrangements for Abbas to visit the Islamic Republic as part of a PA effort to strengthen ties. Majdalani told Palestinian radio that he signed a cooperation agreement between Iran and “Palestine,” with the two sides forming a “high committee” to discuss political, economic and social exchanges.