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 reportedlyexpressed 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