CAIRO (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s leader King Salman bin Abdulaziz told President Donald Trump there would be no normalization with Israel as a Palestinian state, the kingdom’s state news firm reported on Monday.
The leaders spoke on the phone following a historic agreement negotiated through the United States last month under which the United Arab Emirates agreed with the third Arab state to normalize relations with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.
King Salman told Trump that he appreciated America’s peace efforts and that Saudi Arabia sought to see a just and permanent solution to the Palestinian challenge founded on the kingdom’s 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
As a component of this proposal, Arab nations presented Israel with standardized ties in exchange for a state agreement with the Palestinians, and Israel’s general withdrawal from the territory captured the 1967 Middle East War.
Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam and its greatest sacred shrines, does not recognize Israel.
However, this month, the kingdom said it would allow flights between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, as well as via Israeli planes, to use its airspace.
Trump’s White House adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said he hoped the Arab country would normalize relations in a few months.
No other Arab state has stated that it plans to stay in the United Arab Emirates.
King Salman’s son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Kushner discussed the desire of Palestinians and Israelis to resume negotiations and achieve lasting peace after Kushner in the United Arab Emirates last month.
The agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel met through overwhelming Palestinian opposition.
(Reporting through Alaa Swilam, written through Alexander Cornwell; edited through Peter Cooney and Richard Pullin)
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