Latest news with #ArabDelegation
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Arab officials put off rare West Bank trip over Israeli 'obstruction'
Top Arab diplomats, who had planned to make a rare visit to the West Bank, have decided to postpone the trip due to "Israel's obstruction", Jordan said on Saturday. An Arab delegation led by the Saudi foreign minister had originally planned to travel from Jordan to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in what would have been the first such high-level visit since Israel occupied the Palestinian territory in 1967. "The committee decided to postpone the visit to Ramallah in light of Israel's obstruction of its mission by refusing the delegation entry through airspace in the occupied West Bank controlled by Israel," the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said. The ministers slammed the reported Israeli decision, calling it a "flagrant violation of Israel's obligations as the occupying power," the ministry added in a statement posted on the social media platform X. There was no official Israeli comment on the visit. The delegation includes the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other countries, the Saudi state television Al Ekhbariya reported earlier this week. The broadcaster quoted the Palestinian ambassador to Riyadh as saying the team planned during the Ramallah visit to discuss drumming up international support for Palestinian statehood ahead of a conference on a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem, including the creation of a Palestinian state alongside with Israel. Saudi Arabia and France are due to co-chair the conference in New York on June 17-20. The Israeli media outlet ynet quoted an Israeli official as saying that "such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel."
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
Saudi Arabia's Prince Faisal to travel to West Bank in historic visit
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, is expected to visit the West Bank this weekend, marking one of the most senior Saudi officials to do so since 1967. The top Saudi diplomat will lead an Arab delegation that will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials from the Palestinian Authorities (PA) during their one-day visit, according to Palestinian Ambassador to Riyadh, Mazen Ghoneim. Ghoneim said the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and 'other countries' would also be part of the visit. In comments to Saudi Arabia's Al-Ekhbariya, Ghoneim said the talks would focus on Arab efforts for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. Saudi Arabia and France are expected to co-host a conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York next month, where Paris is scheduled to recognize Palestinian statehood. Manal Radwan, a senior advisor to the Saudi foreign minister, said regional peace begins with recognizing the State of Palestine 'not as a symbolic gesture, but as a strategic necessity.' Speaking earlier this month at a preparatory UN session ahead of the June conference, Radwan said: 'Civilians continue to pay the price of a war that must end immediately. The escalation in the West Bank is equally alarming. Despair grows deeper by the day.' She added: 'This is precisely why we must speak not only of ending the war but of ending a conflict that has lasted nearly eight decades.'
