Asharq al-Awsat|
Azzam el-Ahmad, a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah central committee, welcomed on Thursday the Saudi position on peace with Israel on the basis of the longstanding Arab Peace Initiative.
“The Saudi position is important because it adheres to Arab consensus, the Arab Peace Initiative, and plays a central role in the region,” Ahmad said.
On Wednesday, Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the Kingdom remains committed to peace with Israel on the basis of the longstanding Arab Peace Initiative, in the first official comment since the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize relations with Israel.
“The Kingdom considers any Israeli unilateral measures to annex Palestinian land as undermining the two-state solution,” the Saudi Minister said in an event in Berlin on Wednesday, in comments reported on Saudi’s foreign affairs ministry Twitter page.
Ahmad said the Saudi position confirms that the Kingdom would not normalize its relationship with Israel because it is a central state at the Arab, regional, and international levels.
Israel and the UAE reached a historic deal last week that will establish diplomatic ties, becoming the third Arab country to recognize Israel after Jordan and Egypt.
For his part, Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that “abiding by the Arab Peace Initiative (API) is the real test for Arab states’ positions on Jerusalem and a test for the seriousness of the Arab joint action.”
He added that the Palestinian people’s firm position against the US-touted Mideast plan, dubbed deal of the century, as well as against Israel’s illegal annexation move and Arab-Israeli normalization that comes for free has thwarted all colonial schemes against Palestine.
Abu Rudeineh pointed out that the Palestinian people’s unified stance in support of the recent Palestinian leadership led by President Mahmoud Abbas is “the optimal response to all conspiracies and steps that breach the Arab consensus” as well as to Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on eliminating Palestinian veto on Arab-Israeli peace.
