Zionist Minister in Saudi Arabia in First Public Visit

RIYADH (KI) – The Zionist regime’s tourism minister has travelled to Saudi Arabia for a United Nations conference, his office said, describing the visit as the first public trip to the country by a cabinet member from the Zionist regime.

Haim Katz’s two-day visit to Riyadh comes as Saudi Arabia is pursuing a possible United States-brokered deal that would forge formal bilateral relations with the occupying regime. Katz is leading a delegation as part of a UN World Tourism Organization event.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday sent its first delegation in three decades to the occupied West Bank to reassure Palestinians that it will defend their cause even as it forges closer ties with the occupying regime.
Washington has urged its Middle East allies the occupying regime and Saudi Arabia to normalize diplomatic relations, following similar deals involving the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
The Palestinians have labeled those U.S.-brokered agreements a betrayal of their plight and quest for statehood -- but Nayef al-Sudairi, who headed the Saudi delegation, sought to reassure them that Riyadh stands by their side.
“The Palestinian matter is a fundamental pillar,” Sudairi, the new ambassador to the Palestinians, said after meeting top Palestinian diplomat Riyad al-Maliki in Ramallah for talks and to present his credentials.
“And it’s certain that the Arab initiative, which was presented by the kingdom in 2002, is a cornerstone of any upcoming deal.”
The 2002 initiative proposed Arab relations with the Zionist regime in exchange for its withdrawal from the West Bank, east Al-Quds, Gaza and the Golan Heights, and a just resolution for the Palestinians.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, 87, last week again stressed strong reservations to Arab countries building ties with the occupying regime.
“Those who think that peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full, legitimate national rights would be mistaken,” Abbas told the UN General Assembly in New York.
Sudairi’s delegation, which crossed overland from Jordan, was the first from Saudi Arabia to visit the West Bank since the 1993 Oslo Accords, which had aimed to pave the way for an end to the Zionist-Palestinian conflict.
When asked whether there will be a Saudi embassy in Al-Quds, Sudairi recalled that there used to be a one in the Al-Quds district of Sheikh Jarrah, and said that “hopefully there will be an embassy there” again.
The Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, last week told U.S. network Fox that the kingdom was getting “closer” to a deal with the Zionist regime but insisted that the Palestinian cause remains “very important” for Riyadh.