{"id":2131,"date":"2017-12-09T03:33:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-09T04:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madaresharghi.com\/riyadh-advancing-israeli-interests-palestinian-officials-worry\/"},"modified":"2017-12-09T03:33:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T04:33:52","slug":"riyadh-advancing-israeli-interests-palestinian-officials-worry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/riyadh-advancing-israeli-interests-palestinian-officials-worry\/","title":{"rendered":"Riyadh advancing Israeli interests, Palestinian officials worry"},"content":{"rendered":"

madaresharghi<\/a>
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Palestinian officials have expressed worry that Saudi Arabia is forgoing important Palestinian rights as it acts behind the scenes to advance a United States \u2018grand bargain\u2019 over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that heavily favors Israeli interests.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\n\tFour Palestinian officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity on Friday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had communicated a proposal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that would give away the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of a future Palestinian state in return for conditions unfavorable to Palestinians, Reuters reported on Friday, presstv.com reported.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat proposal has reportedly been shaped by Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and \u2018senior adviser,\u2019 who has developed a close relationship with Mohammed bin Salman.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Palestinian officials expressed concern that the proposal is too much in line with Israeli interests and to the disadvantage of Palestinians, whose land Israel has occupied.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump on Wednesday declared that the US was recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as the \u2018capital\u2019 of Israel and had instructed his administration to begin the process of moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the ancient city.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump\u2019s controversial move sparked a wave of condemnations from the international community and warnings of further inflammation of the tensions in the occupied territories. It also led to violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\n\tPeople hold pro-Palestinian rallies in many cities across the world to slam a US decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel\u2019s \u2018capital.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tBut that declaration was welcomed by Israel, which claims sovereignty over the whole Jerusalem al-Quds. This is while the international community views East Jerusalem as occupied land and the Palestinians want it as the capital of a future Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Palestinians officials told Reuters they feared that by the Quds announcement, Trump would align with Israel in offering the Palestinians limited self-government inside disconnected West Bank patches, with no right of return for the displaced population.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to one of the Palestinian officials, the US proposal that bin Salman communicated to Abbas included establishing \u2018a Palestinian entity\u2019 in Gaza as well as the West Bank administrative areas A and B and 10 percent of area C.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder the plan, however, Israeli settlements would stay in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian refugees would not be able to return to their homeland, and the Tel Aviv regime would maintain control over borders, the source added.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother Palestinian official said bin Salman had asked Abbas to back the US initiative when the two met in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, last month.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPresident Trump in a phone call told Abu Mazen (Abbas): \u2018I will have some proposals for you that you would like.\u2019 When Abu Mazen pressed him on details, Trump didn\u2019t give any,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\n\tA third Palestinian official said the Saudi crown prince had told Abbas, \u201cBe patient, you will hear good news. This peace process will go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, an unnamed Saudi source predicted that an understanding on the so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace would emerge in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\n\tJordanian political analyst Oraib Rantawi warned of \u201cdirect dealings and a desire to present a deal that is unfair to the Palestinians in return for securing US backing and paving the way for Persian Gulf-Israeli cooperation to confront Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKushner has recently been increasingly engaging Saudi Arabia. Trump has put his son-in-law in charge of the Middle East portfolio, an appointment that has drawn criticism \u2014 including from some Israeli-Americans, who question Kushner\u2019s capabilities or knowledge of diplomacy or politics.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a rare public appearance last week, Kushner was grilled by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow do you operate with people who basically, with all due respect, a bunch of Orthodox Jews who have no idea about anything?\u201d Saban told Kushner. \u201cWhat are you guys doing? Seriously, I don\u2019t understand this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShadi Hamid, senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, questioned Saudi motives in an article in The Atlantic magazine.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf Saudi officials, including the crown prince himself, were particularly concerned with Jerusalem\u2019s status, they would presumably have used their privileged status as a top Trump ally and lobbied the administration to hold off on such a needlessly toxic move,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaudi Arabia\u2019s maneuvering over Palestine comes amid increasing reports that the Riyadh regime is preparing a normalization of ties with Israel. In November, Lebanon\u2019s al-Akhbar daily published a secret undated letter from Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir to bin Salman that laid out a number of conditions in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel.<\/p>\n

\n\tA secret, undated letter from Saudi FM to the crown prince which sets out plans for the establishment of ties with Israel.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the conditions was that the Saudis would contribute to the resolution of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict by proposing the resettling of Palestinian refugees in their host countries rather than their return to their homeland.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaudi Arabia has also cultivated better relations with the administration of Trump, a former businessman, by purchasing billions of dollars\u2019 worth of American arms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

madaresharghi Palestinian officials have expressed worry that Saudi Arabia is forgoing important Palestinian rights as it acts behind the scenes to advance a United States \u2018grand bargain\u2019 over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that heavily favors Israeli interests. Four Palestinian officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity on Friday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[296,118,28,31,159,639,178,56,213,84,95,82,68,22,23,27],"yoast_head":"\nRiyadh advancing Israeli interests, Palestinian officials worry - madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/riyadh-advancing-israeli-interests-palestinian-officials-worry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Riyadh advancing Israeli interests, Palestinian officials worry - madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"madaresharghi Palestinian officials have expressed worry that Saudi Arabia is forgoing important Palestinian rights as it acts behind the scenes to advance a United States \u2018grand bargain\u2019 over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that heavily favors Israeli interests. 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