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At UN, No Signals From Saudi King on Peace With Israel

Margaret Besheer

   NEW YORK - Saudi Arabia's king expressed support for peace in the
   Middle East at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, but did not
   suggest that Riyadh was likely to soon follow the United Arab Emirates
   and Bahrain in normalizing relations with Israel.

   "Peace in the Middle East is our strategic option," King Salman bin
   Abdulaziz told the virtual forum in a videotaped message. "We will
   spare no effort to work together towards achieving a bright future
   where peace, stability, prosperity and co-existence among all the
   region's peoples prevails."

   The "region's peoples" include Israel, with whom the Saudis do not have
   relations. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump predicted after the
   signing of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between
   Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, that Riyadh would follow suit "at the
   right time."

   But in his UNGA remarks Wednesday, King Salman reiterated the long-held
   Saudi position in support of a two-state solution between Israel and
   the Palestinians, with East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent
   Palestinian state. He also expressed support for the 2002 Arab peace
   initiative, which offered normalized relations with Israel in exchange
   for a Palestinian state.

   Saudi king: Outreach to Iran failed

   On Iran, the Sunni Muslim king said his government has extended its
   hand in peace to the majority Shiite country in the past, but "to no
   avail." The two regional powers have been fighting a proxy war in Yemen
   since 2015. Salman said Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have
   launched more than 300 ballistic missiles and over 400 armed drones
   into Saudi territory since the start of the conflict. He also
   criticized Tehran for exploiting the 2015 nuclear deal to fuel its
   "expansionist projects" in the region.

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