Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin-Abdul Aziz joined in the Muslim worlds condemnation of President Trump’s decision on Jerusalem, which he asserted “downgraded the historic and permanent rights of the Palestinian people.”
Following King Salman’s statement, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem was counterproductive and stressed, nevertheless, that his country was waiting to learn Washington’s peace plan. Al-Jubeir said in an interview to France 24 News that the United States had consulted with Saudi Arabia, among other regional powers, on the peace plan and that it had said that the solution to the conflict was the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Saudi top diplomat took the opportunity to emphasize that his country, contrary to reports of rapprochement with Israel, has always supported the Palestinians. Moreover, Al-Jubeir stressed that Saudi Arabia did not have relations with Israel and that relations would only materialize after a peace deal was reached between Israel and the Palestinians.