Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan will lead a delegation representing the Arab-Islamic ministerial committee to visit Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday as international efforts for Palestinian statehood intensify.
Prince Faisal will become the first Saudi foreign minister to visit the occupied West Bank since 1967, a diplomatic source told AFP, as Israel’s Gaza genocide drags on and Riyadh pushes for Palestinian statehood.
The Saudi-run Al-Arabiya television reported that Prince Faisal will lead the committee, tasked to mobilise international efforts to end the Israeli war on Gaza and create a political horizon for ending Israeli occupation, to meet top Palestinian officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas.
His visit also comes as preparations intensify for a major UN conference on Palestine in New York next month.
The conference, to be chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, will discuss the prospect of a two-state solution to the conflict.
Earlier, Palestinian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mazen Ghoneim told Saudi state-run Al-Ikhbariya television that top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, and other countries would join the Saudi Foreign Minister.
"The ministerial visit… is considered a clear message. The Palestinian cause is a central issue to Arabs and Muslims," Ghoneim added.
The delegation's trip follows the committee's recent Madrid meeting, where members stressed implementing a two-state solution based on June 4, 1967, borders with East Jerusalem as Palestine's capital, in line with relevant UN resolutions.
The move by Israel deepens Israel’s strained global relations amid the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.
Entire bloodlines wiped out
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that a ceasefire deal is "very close".
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has entered its 602nd day. The Palestinian death toll has officially surged beyond 54,321, with entire bloodlines wiped out, and thousands still buried under the rubble.
The UN's humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has issued a statement saying Israel’s forced starvation of the Gaza population amounts to a war crime and the entire population of the besieged enclave is at risk of famine.
In a blunt and forceful intervention, former UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths became the latest to call the horror unfolding in Gaza what it is — genocide.
"I think now we've got to the point this is unequivocal. Of course it is genocide. Just as it is weaponising aid.
Amnesty International has already said that Israel is committing the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation in Palestine, says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The International Court of Justice ruled on January 26, 2024, that Palestinians were "at risk of" genocide.
