JEDDAH, 5 March — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd reiterated his support for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital in a meeting yesterday with Palestinian Minister for International Cooperation Nabil Shaath.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia still stands by the Palestinian people in their struggle to recover their legitimate rights and the establish an independent state with Jerusalem as capital,” King Fahd said, quoted by the SPA news agency.
His comments came amid growing international support for a peace proposal launched by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, calling for Israel’s total withdrawal from occupied Arab territories — including Jerusalem — to normalize ties with the Jewish state.
Israel has declared East Jerusalem, home to sites holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews, part of its eternal and undivided capital — a position not recognized by the international community.
Shaath briefed King Fahd on the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories and delivered a message of “gratitude” from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, SPA said.
Shaath told AFP on Sunday there was a high chance Arafat, under virtual house arrest by the Israeli military, will attend an upcoming Arab summit expected to discuss Prince Abdullah’s peace plan.
“My understanding is that if Arafat did not attend the summit, the (Saudi) peace initiative will not be discussed,” Shaath said.
Foreign ministers of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, meanwhile, will meet in Jeddah on March 10-11 to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East, diplomatic sources said yesterday.
The meeting will focus on the Saudi proposal for peace in the Middle East, the sources said.
The ministers are expected to “ratify this proposal which represents a real test of Israel’s desire to make peace” with the Arabs, one diplomat said.
Prince Abdullah intends to put his proposals to the Arab summit scheduled to open in Beirut on March 27 and to turn them into an Arab peace plan.
The GCC ministers are also expected to call on Iraq to conform to UN resolutions and authorize the return to the sanctions-hit country of weapons inspectors to “save the region and Iraqi people from fallout from US threats,” another Gulf diplomat said. The United States, backed by Britain, has dropped broad hints that it will take military action against Iraq unless inspectors are allowed back into the country to check that Baghdad no longer has weapons of mass destruction.
