The Siasat Daily, India’s largest circulated Urdu Daily, has reported something I have not seen elsewhere: that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman offer PA President Mahmoud Abbas $10 billion to give up claims on Judea and Samaria.
Last week a senior Palestinian official gave insights about the linkage between the announcement and Trump’s broader plans for the region. This official was briefed on the details of the surprise meeting last month between Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (and head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the PLO), and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Abbas was summoned to Riyadh on November 6 by the Crown Prince as part of the latter’s high-powered effort to engineer a joint Arab-U.S. offensive against Iran and its allies.
According to the source, Mohammed bin Salman is playing a high-stakes gamble to cement both his leadership and his corollary offensive. On this score, the crown prince announced that the Arab Peace Initiative (API) is effectively dead. The crown prince declared that it’s time for Plan B, a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. When Mahmood Abbas asked about the place of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in this scheme, the crown Prince replied, “We can continue to negotiate about this.” He is also said to have offered the Palestinian leader $10 billion to sweeten the bitter pill he had just prescribed. Abbas is in dilemma he can neither say no nor yes.
I have no idea if this is true, and even doubt it, especially give the tone of Abbas’ speech yesterday. But the very existence of the report is interesting, especially at a time there are other reports that the Saudi Crown Prince has been invited to Israel.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman has been invited to visit Israel by the state’s Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz, his spokesman said on Wednesday.
According to the spokesperson Arye Shalicar, the unexpected call was issued by Katz during an interview with Elaph, a news website run by a Saudi businessman.
Although the comments were not published in the interview, for reasons oblivious to Shalicar, even then he confirmed the invitation by the minister of a state having no diplomatic ties with the Oil-rich kingdom.
“He said that he asks the king to invite (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu officially to Riyadh, and he asks MBS, Mohammed bin Salman, the son, to come and visit Israel,” Shalicar quoted Katz as saying
We live in interesting times.
