Trump's meeting with Saudi leader set to include Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian leaders
File photo : Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with US President Donald Trump at the Palace Hotel during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 2017, in New York. (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski) Israeli concerns grew after reports that Trump plans to meet Palestinian, Syrian & Lebanese presidents in Saudi Arabia
after
reports revealed that Trump would announce US recognition of Palestinian state during his trip
Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, aka MbS , expects US president to agree to Saudi conditions for Saudi normalization with Israel on Palestinian statehood, source tells Arab media
US President Donald Trump's meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Tuesday is also set to include Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, Arabic media reported Sunday.
Citing an informed source who declined to be identified, Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds said the Saudi Crown prince 'looks forward to Trump's agreement to the Saudi condition of establishing a Palestinian state.' Trump had said in February that Saudi Arabia was no longer demanding Palestinian statehood as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel, a statement that at the time
drew
an urgent Saudi denial.
According to the source cited by Al-Quds, Trump had acceded to bin Salman's request to include the other Arab leaders in the meeting, which will come at the start of Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates between May 13 and 16.
Trump wo will not be visiting Israel this time
predicted
ahead of his trip that Saudi-Israeli normalization would happen 'very quickly,' but reportedly dropped normalization with Israel as a condition for progress on Saudi Arabia's civilian nuclear program.
It had been reported Saturday that Trump would announce US recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Trump announced last week that he will be making a huge announcement during his trip.
Israel-Saudi normalization seemed just around the corner before the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, that started the war in Gaza. Two Israeli ministers made unprecedented state visits to the the kingdom in the weeks before the assault, but the prospect of normalization faded as anti-Israel sentiment reached new heights in the Arab world amid the war.
During his first term, Trump brokered the Abraham Accords normalization agreements between Israel, the UAE, Morocco, Sudan and Bahrain, partly in exchange for Israel backing away from a plan to annex the West Bank, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.
The meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday comes as Trump has
reportedly
expressed frustration over the failure to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, which has been devastated over 19 months of war. The PA had previously threatened to
cut ties
with Trump over a plan he announced in February to take over Gaza, oust its residents and rebuild the devastated Strip as a coastal resort.
A
rival Egyptian plan
for postwar Gaza would have ultimately handed the Strip over to the PA, but Netanyahu has rejected any role for the unpopular body in Gaza's postwar governance.
Separately, Israel continues to occupy 5 strategic hills in Lebanon despite the ceasefire deal that was reached last November and continues to carr out military strikes in southern Lebanon
Israel also has been attacking Syria since the ouster of
Bashar al-Assad
by Ahmed al Sharaa' Both Lebanese President Aoun and Syria's interim leader Sharaa have demanded that Israel withdraw from their respective countries.
Trump Tower in Damascus
A Trump Tower in Damascus, a detente with Israel and U.S. access to Syria's oil and gas are part of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa's strategic pitch to try to meet with Trump during his trip to the Middle East, according to several sources familiar with the push to woo Washington.
Jonathan Bass, an American pro-Trump activist, who on April 30 met Sharaa for four hours in Damascus, along with Syrian activists and Gulf Arab states has been trying to arrange a meeting between the two leaders this week on the sidelines of Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to a report by Reuters
.
Syria has struggled to implement conditions set out by Washington for relief from U.S. sanctions, which keep the country cut off from the global financial system and make economic recovery extremely challenging after 14 years of grinding war.
News Agencies
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Manar
36 minutes ago
- Al Manar
Dozens Martyred in Israeli Airstrikes Targeting Aid Seekers in Gaza
Dozens of Palestinians were martyred or injured on Saturday as Israeli occupation forces intensified airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, striking civilian neighborhoods and gatherings of those seeking humanitarian aid amid a worsening famine and critical food insecurity. Israeli occupation forces opened heavy fire on Palestinian civilians gathered to receive desperately needed aid along the Netzarim axis in central Gaza. This is part of a repeated pattern where aid distribution points become scenes of violence, as Israel continues to weaponize… — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 10, 2025 Four young men lost their lives and several others were wounded when Israeli warplanes bombed an area near the Osama Bin Zaid School in the al-Saftawi neighborhood, north of Gaza City. Israeli warplanes bombard the Batn Al-Sameen neighborhood, south of Khan Younis. — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 11, 2025 Israeli aggression continued with reports of additional airstrikes in the al-Sabra neighborhood, as well as drone attacks targeting civilians waiting for food assistance near the entrance to the al-Bureij refugee camp. Many were critically injured as live fire was directed at desperate residents in central Gaza, with casualties flooding into al-Awda Hospital. So far, four martyrs have been confirmed, along with approximately 90 others seeking medical care following the assaults on aid seekers along the Salah al-Din Road. The situation in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp worsened as two more individuals were killed and others injured from airstrikes near the Fayad roundabout. BREAKING: Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat refugee camp reports that seven Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli attacks on groups of civilians around the so-called Netzarim checkpoint in the central Gaza Strip. — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 11, 2025 Further attacks involved Israeli drone-launched bombs targeting displaced Palestinians along a nearby street, resulting in three additional martyrs being recovered from the rubble. In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli aircraft bombed a tent housing displaced civilians in the al-Mawasi area, while military vehicles fired upon residents in the Batn al-Samin area, contributing to the growing number of injuries. UN Warnings: The Risk of Famine in Gaza is Worsening The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced that the risk of famine in the Gaza Strip remains extremely high, given the ongoing restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid. The WFP noted that since May 19, it has been able to bring only limited quantities of life-saving aid into Gaza. Only 700 trucks have entered since aid resumed, compared to the 600 to 700 trucks that entered daily before the recent escalation. The WFP emphasized that preventing famine requires regular support for the people of Gaza by meeting their basic food needs. It emphasized that the entry of aid requires providing safe routes for convoys, expediting permit approvals, and opening crossings. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that the ongoing hostilities and worsening hunger are pushing more than two million people in Gaza toward despair.
Nahar Net
6 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Army searches building in Hadath for Hezbollah weapons
by Naharnet Newsdesk 7 hours Army forces launched Tuesday a search in a building in a densely populated area of Hadath in Beirut's southern suburbs. A Lebanese military official said the forces were looking for weapons at the request of a five-member committee supervising the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire. The building in the Sainte-Therese street had already been targeted during the the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. Israel warned on Friday that it would keep up its strikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, after it struck four locations in Dahieh on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The Lebanese army condemned the airstrikes, warning that such attacks are weakening the role of Lebanon's armed forces that might eventually suspend cooperation with the committee monitoring the truce that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war. It said it had tried to convince Israel not to carry out the strikes and to instead let Lebanese officials go in to search the area under the mechanism laid out in the ceasefire agreement, but that the Israeli army refused, so Lebanese soldiers moved away from the locations after they were sent.
LBCI
10 hours ago
- LBCI
France says it obtains Palestinian reform pledge ahead of conference
France said on Tuesday it had obtained new commitments from the Palestinian Authority to reform, ahead of a conference next week at which Paris could become the most prominent Western power to back recognition of an independent Palestinian state. President Emmanuel Macron has received a letter from Mahmoud Abbas in which the Palestinian president condemns the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack against Israel, calls on all hostages to be released and pledges further reforms, the Elysee said. The letter to Macron, who is working on organizing an international conference with Saudi Arabia to discuss recognition of Palestine, contains "unprecedented" pledges, Macron's office said, without elaborating. "Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian Security Forces, which will oversee their removal outside the Occupied Palestinian territory, with Arab and international support," the French leader's office quoted Abbas as having written in the letter. French officials have said Macron is leaning towards recognizing a Palestinian state ahead of the U.N. conference which France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting from June 17-20. Reuters
