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Arab Views Diverge on Trump Mideast Peace Plan

Jacob Wirtschafter

   RIYADH - The political proximity of Gulf leaders to U.S. President
   Donald Trump and their eagerness to include Israel in a solidified
   security stance against Iran has laid bare widening gaps on how to end
   the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the wake of Tuesday's revelation of
   the American administration's Mideast peace plan.

   Starting Friday, foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, United Arab
   Emirates, and Bahrain will arrive in Cairo for an urgent Saturday
   meeting of the Arab League, where they will urge Palestinian Authority
   President Mahmoud Abbas to engage with Trump and the Israelis.

   Abbas will ask Arab nations to unite against the initiative. He is
   joined by critics who say continued Israeli military control and
   permanent occupation by civilian settlers will result in an unfeasible
   quasi-state dividing Palestinian lands.

   But Saudi Arabia - the Arab world's richest and one of its most
   populous countries - leads the bloc of states urging the Palestinians
   to engage with the American initiative.

   "The kingdom appreciates the efforts of President Trump's
   administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the
   Palestinian and the Israeli sides," the foreign ministry said in a
   statement carried on Saudi state media.

   The emerging leadership under Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has
   tired of bankrolling Palestinian resistance to occupation and seeks a
   definitive break with the idea that Israel can be reduced to the
   dimensions it achieved after its founding in 1948.

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