Saudi Arabia will adhere to the Arab Peace Plan in its relations with Israel, the Kingdom\u2019s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Peace must be achieved with the Palestinians on the basis of the initiative for any alteration in ties, Prince Faisal bin Farhan said. \u201cOnce that is achieved all things are possible.\u201d
The minister said: \u201cWhen we sponsored the Arab Peace Plan in 2002, we fully envisioned that there would eventually be relations between all Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, and Israel if the condition is met.
\u201cSaudi Arabia remains committed to peace as a strategic option based on the Arab Peace Plan and relevant international resolutions enabling the Palestinian people to establish their own state with East Jerusalem as its capital.\u201d
The UAE and Israel last week established diplomatic relations for the first time. In an agreement brokered by the US, Israel also suspended plans to annex swaths of the occupied West Bank.
Prince Faisal voiced cautious optimism over the agreement. \u201cAny efforts that result in holding back the threat of annexation could be viewed as positive,\u201d he said.
Under the 2002 Saudi-sponsored Arab Peace Plan, Israel would withdraw from Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, in exchange for peace and normalization of relations.
As a leader of the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia would never forsake the Palestinians and their struggle for an independent state side by side with Israel, Saudi political analyst and international relations scholar Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri told Arab News.
\u201cThat has always been Saudi Arabia\u2019s position and it remains the Saudi position today. Palestinians are, were, and will always be very dear to us. We will always stand by them.\u201d
In other developments, Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Haider Badawi was fired on Wednesday for saying Sudan could be next to normalize relations with Israel. The two countries are technically at war.
\u201cThe question of relations with the Israelis has never been discussed by the Sudanese government,\u201d Foreign Minister Omar Qamareddin said. Badawi had \u201castonished us because he is not mandated to comment on this subject.\u201d
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin faces a backlash from hardline settlers angry at his suspension of annexation. \u201cHe deceived us, defrauded us, duped us,\u201d said settlers\u2019 leader David Elhayani.
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Saudi Arabia will adhere to the Arab Peace Plan in its relations with Israel, the Kingdom\u2019s foreign minister said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c59-islamic-world"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n