Abbas speaks with Saudi king about American peace efforts, reconciliation
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke with Saudi King Salman in Riyadh on Tuesday about American peace efforts and reconciliation, the official PA news site Wafa reported.
Abbas arrived in the Saudi Arabian capital on Monday night following a short visit to Egypt, where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and attended an international conference.
“President Abbas informed [Salman] of the latest developments related to the Palestinian issue, American efforts to advance the peace process and... national reconciliation,” Wafa reported.
Since President Donald Trump assumed office in January, American officials have met with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders on dozens of occasions in an attempt to revive peace talks.
In mid-October, Egypt brokered a deal between Abbas’s Fatah Party and Hamas to advance reconciliation efforts and restore the PA’s governing authority in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007, when it ousted Fatah from the territory.
In their meeting on Tuesday, Abbas and Salman also discussed their nations’ bilateral relations, Wafa reported.
Since the PA’s establishment in the early 1990s, Saudi Arabia has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to it.
Salman also affirmed Saudi Arabia’s “support for the Palestinian issue in all international forums and providing everything that is needed to establish an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” the Wafa report said.
Saudi Arabia has long advocated for the Arab peace initiative as a framework to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.