Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia is to become the first Saudi minister of foreign affairs to visit the occupied West Bank today, a diplomatic source said, as the Gaza war drags on and Riyadh pushes for Palestinian statehood.
He is to lead a delegation to Ramallah, a Palestinian embassy source said, the first such trip since Israel first occupied the Palestinian territory in 1967.
Saudi Arabia sent a lower-level delegation to Ramallah in September 2023, its first since 1967, not long before Hamas’ attack triggered the Gaza war.
Photo: Reuters
International backlash has been growing since Israel resumed its offensive in Gaza in March, with a humanitarian crisis spiralling and the UN warning of famine.
Next month, Saudi Arabia and France would cochair an international conference meant to resurrect the two-state solution at the UN headquarters in New York.
Nearly 150 countries recognize the State of Palestine, which has observer status at the UN, but is not a full member, as the Security Council has not voted to admit it.
In May last year, Ireland, Norway and Spain took the step of recognizing a Palestinian state, but other European governments, including France, have not.
French President Emmanuel Macron in April said that France could recognize a Palestinian state this month.
Macron said at the time that he wished to organize the New York conference to encourage recognition of the State of Palestine, “but also a recognition of Israel from states that currently do not.”
Saudi Arabia was said to be close to recognizing Israel before the start of the Gaza war.
US President Donald Trump during a visit to Riyadh this month called Saudi normalization with Israel “my fervent hope and wish, and even my dream.”
In September last year, de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated clearly that Saudi Arabia would not recognize Israel without an independent Palestinian state.
This position was reaffirmed in November at a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit, where Israel was accused of “genocide” in Gaza.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
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