Abbas meets with Saudi king in Jeddah

PA president updates Salman on the ‘continual Israeli violations against Palestinian lands, people and holy places’

By Dov Lieber 19 June 2016, 8:01 pm

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Dov Lieber is a former Times of Israel Arab affairs correspondent.

Then Saudi Crown Prince and now King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (right) meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (left) in the Saudi Red Sea resort of Jeddah, on June 18, 2014. (AFP/HO/Saudi Press Agency)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met on Sunday with the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in Jeddah.

During the meeting in the As-Salam royal palace, Abbas updated the Saudi monarch on the latest developments in Palestinian issues, “in the shadow of continual Israeli violations against [the Palestinian people], their land, and their holy places,” the PA’s official news agency Wafa reported.

Salman confirmed the “steadfast” positions of the Saudi kingdom regarding the Palestinian issues, the report said, including the “legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people.”

The statement was noticeably thin on substance in comparison to past statements from similar meetings, which included the king’s support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Saudi King Abdullah (front R) talks with newly appointed Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdel-Aziz in Taif June 19, 2012. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has appointed his defence minister, Prince Salman, as heir apparent, opting for stability and a continuation of cautious reforms at a time of challenges for the world's biggest oil exporter. (Photo by Reuters/Saudi Press Agency/Handout) — Saudi King Abdullah (front right) talks with newly appointed Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz in Taif June 19, 2012. (Reuters/Saudi Press Agency/Handout)

The meeting was attended by PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat, Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, diplomatic adviser Majdi al-Khalidi, and Bassam al-Agha, the Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Also in attendance was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, as well as a number of Saudi princes and ministers.

Abbas has already met several times with the Saudi king since the monarch came to power in January 2015. The Palestinian leader has remained publicly in lockstep with the Saudi regime, which provides the Palestinians with large sums of aid.

Saudi Arabia is believed to maintain under-the-table relations with Israel.