New peace plan proposed by Saudi prince is ‘biased toward Israel’

Palestine

Published: 2017-12-04 18:04

Last Updated: 2024-03-27 05:23


The peace deal proposed by Saudi Crown Prince.
The peace deal proposed by Saudi Crown Prince.

After the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Saudi Arabia earlier in November, Arabs were wondering about what happened behind closed doors with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

The New York Times cited Palestinian, Arab and European officials who met Abbas and heard his presentation about the peace deal proposed by Bin Salman.

Abbas presented a plan that is “more tilted toward the Israelis than any ever embraced by the American government, a plan that no Palestinian leader could ever accept,” according to the New York Times.

The proposal indicates a Palestinian state with only noncontiguous parts of the West Bank with limited sovereignty over their own territory.

The plan will not affect the Israeli settlements of the West Bank. It suggests that Palestinians will not be given East Jerusalem as their capital, and the Palestinian refugees will not have a right to return for their ancestors home country.

Also, the Saudi proposal suggests that Abu Dis, a suburb of East Jerusalem, could be the Palestinians’ capital, the NYT reported.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia denied its support to such plan, and the White House said it will need months to finalize their peace plan.

Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, described the Saudi proposals as “fake news” that “does not exist,” and said the Palestinians are still waiting for a formal proposal from the US.

On his turn, Prince Khaled bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to US, said “the Kingdom remains committed to a settlement based on the Arab peace initiative of 2002, including East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders. To suggest otherwise is false,” according to the NYT.

On the other hand, Trump’s advisor, Jared Kushner said at the Saban Forum, the Middle East conference in Washington, that Palestinians “know what discussions we’ve had with them. The Israelis know what discussions we’ve had with them.”

This raises many questions whether the Saudi Prince steps will change the face of the Arab world including the Palestinian cause and Arabs conflict with Israel.