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.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
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