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Saudi Arabia Calls for Lowering Arab Ties With Israel
Saudi Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ibn Abdul-Aziz November 12 further pressed the Islamic countries, that still have official relations with Israel, to downgrade or freeze these ties in a sign of support to the Palestinians and other Arabs.
"How could some (Arab) countries continue having relations with Israel?" asked Abdullah, at a special session on the situation in the Palestinian territories held during the ninth summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
He urged the Arab countries to "downgrade or at least freeze relations until progress was made in the peace process, not only on the Palestinian-Israeli track but on all other tracks."
At present, only three Arab states - Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania - are maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel. Qatar, the host country of the ninth OIC summit, shut down Israel's commercial office in Doha last Thursday, in response to mounting pressures from the Islamic world.
Meanwhile, the Saudi leader called for severing relations with any country that shifts its embassy to Al Qods (Jerusalem), which the Islamic nation regards as a Muslim holy city and the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.
He stressed that just and durable peace requirements would be met only when the Israeli side is committed to basis and principles of the Middle East peace process, which was launched in 1993.
Saudi Arabia first decided to boycott the Doha OIC summit on grounds that "the condition necessary to hold such a meeting are not met yet because of the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories. But Riyadh recalled the boycott following Qatar's closure of the Israeli trade office.
Abdullah, who has been taking care of his country's administrative affairs since Saudi King Fahd suffered a stroke in mid 1990s, urged Islamic countries to forge a common and effective strategy to rein in the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.
The three-day OIC summit coincides with the six-week-long Palestinian-Israeli clashes that have claimed the lives of over 180
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