Some Arab leaders bid farewell to Peres
After a day of silence, a few Arab leaders paid their respects to former Israeli President Shimon Peres on Thursday.
Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmad Al Khalifa tweeted “Rest in peace” on Thursday morning, adding that Peres was “a man of war and a man of the still elusive peace in the Middle East.”
Even though Bahrain has no official diplomatic relationship with Israel, Sheikh Khaled has met with Jewish and Israeli leaders, including former foreign minister Tzipi Livni in 2007.
Jordanian King Abdullah sent a letter to President Reuven Rivlin in the late afternoon, offering his condolences.
“I would like to express my condolences over the passing of former president Shimon Peres,” Abdullah wrote. “Mr. Peres’s efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and his support for the two-state solution must be upheld and built upon by leaders in Israel and all stakeholders in this conflict.”
Jordan announced on Thursday that Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Jawed al-Anani will represent Jordan at Peres’s funeral.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sent a condolence letter to Israeli officials as “is protocol in such circumstances with friendly nations,” according to the London-based Al-Araby al-Jadeed.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri is expected to attend Peres’s funeral.
Former Jordanian King Hussein and former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak attended and delivered eulogies at the funeral of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent a condolence letter to the Peres family on Wednesday, expressing his “sadness and sorrow” for the former Israeli statesman’s death.
Abbas said Peres made “unremitting efforts to reach a permanent peace since the Oslo Accords, until his last moments.”
Abbas will attend the funeral with four other top Palestinian officials, including Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh, PLO Executive Committee Secretary-General Saeb Erakat, General Intelligence chief Majid Faraj, and Palestinian Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society Chairman Muhammad al-Madani.
Yasser Arafat did not attend the funeral of the Rabin, but paid a condolence call, during the seven-day shiva mourning period, to the Rabin family.