US Secretary of State John Kerry has asked the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan to support Palestinian recognition of the Zionist entity as a Jewish State.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has asked the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan to support Palestinian recognition of the Zionist entity as a Jewish State.
A senior Israeli official reported on Tuesday Kerry’s efforts, noting that the top US diplomat is due to meet with Arab League foreign ministers in Paris in another few days and is also hoping to hear a po
sitive approach to this idea from them.
On Sunday, Kerry met with King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman and then with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh to brief both monarchs on his efforts to draft an Israeli-Palestinian “framework agreement”.
One of the key issues he discussed with both men was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish State.
Kerry has adopted Netanyahu’s position on this issue and is interested in including such recognition in his proposed framework agreement, as he has become convinced that without Palestinian recognition of Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people,” he will find it very hard to get Netanyahu either to agree to conduct negotiations on the basis of the 1967 lines or to demonstrate “flexibility” on the issue of security arrangements.
But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has told Kerry he won’t accept such a provision, saying that it would undermine the rights of Israeli Arab citizens.
Kerry therefore asked the Jordanian and Saudi monarchs to help him secure Palestinian consent to this provision by promising to back Abbas if he does agree, or at least by promising not to torpedo such a move.
