Saudi Arabia’s fragile support to Palestine
Saudi Arabia’s traditional pro-Palestinian positions are unlikely to be compromised even if some gestures are made to the Israelis and to the Trump administration.
Five months separated the move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in December 2017 and the convening of the Arab summit in the Saudi city of Dhahran in April 2018. The special relationship between US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner on the one hand, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the other were well known.
It was expected that the Saudi monarch who was hosting the summit would at best avoid the topic of the embassy move rather than support or oppose it. But instead, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud surprised Arab attendees and suggested changing the name of the summit from the Dhahran summit to the Jerusalem summit.
The king also announced a generous donation of $150 million to the Endowment Support Program in Jerusalem and $50 million to support the programs run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
In his speech at the summit, Salman stressed that the Palestinian issue is “our first issue and will remain so,” expressing his condemnation of the decision of the US administration to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem.
