Saudi Arabia sees no obstacle to granting Palestine to Jews: Yemen’s Grand Mufti

The Grand Mufti of Yemen and head of Yemen Scholars Association says Saudi Arabia sees no obstacle to granting the entire Palestine to Jews, describing such an approach as the principled policy of the Riyadh regime.

“Saudi Arabia's fundamental position is that there is no obstacle to granting Palestine to the Jews," Sheikh Shams al-Din Sharaf al-Din said at a conference of Yemeni scholars entitled “Rejection of Trump’s deal and prohibition of normalization with the Zionist enemy” in the capital Sana’a on Thursday.

He added that there will be no real change in the region unless Muslim countries free themselves from the yolk of the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. 

“The House of Saud is opening amusement parks, where alcoholic beverages are drunk, and is misappropriating public assets for sowing the seeds of division within the Muslim world whilst forbidding Muslims from the Masjid al-Haram (the Great Mosque of Mecca),” he added.

Sheikh Sharaf al-Din noted, “Today the Muslim Ummah is required to form a united front against Israel. There is a crisis of trust in God amongst many of those who think that problems can be resolved through abandoning religion.”

The Grand Mufti of Yemen then called upon all Muslims to rally around free and brave leaders and reject those who are linked to the US.

On January 28, President Donald Trump unveiled his so-called deal of the century, negotiated with Israel but without the Palestinians.

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Palestinian leaders, who severed all ties with Washington in late 2017 after Trump controversially recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of the Israeli regime, immediately rejected the plan, with President Mahmoud Abbas saying it “belongs to the dustbin of history.”

Palestinian leaders say the deal is a colonial plan to unilaterally control historic Palestine in its entirety and remove Palestinians from their homeland, adding that it heavily favors Israel and would deny them a viable independent state.

The Saudi foreign ministry said on January 29 it "appreciates" Trump's efforts and called for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks.

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“The kingdom appreciates the efforts of President Trump's Administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides,” it said in a statement carried on the state-run SPA state news agency.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of his visit to the Romanian capital Bucharest last Thursday, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir hailed Trump's plan as positive, saying the initiative can provide the basis for negotiations between the Palestinians and the Tel Aviv regime.

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“The Palestinians must decide for themselves, and we must support them. I believe that things will become clear after the US elections (slated for November 3, 2020),” Jubeir said.

The top Saudi official went on to say that there are some positive elements in Trump’s proposed deal, which could facilitate negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Last month, senior Saudi cleric and former justice minister, Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Karim bin Abdulaziz al-Issa, paid an official visit to the former Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, in Poland. A delegation of American Jewish Committee (AJC) officials was in the company as well.

The CEO of the AJC, David Harris, described Issa’s visit to the site as highly significant, claiming that the trip represented “the most senior delegation" of Muslim scholars to visit Auschwitz ever.

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Last May, Lebanese daily Arabic-language newspaper al-Akhbar said the Saudi crown prince had offered Abbas 10 billion dollars in return for accepting Trump’s controversial proposal.

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly offered Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas $10bn to accept the controversial US-backed deal of century.

Akhbar noted that Abbas had turned down the offer, saying supporting the deal would be “the end of his political life.”

Earlier last year, delegates from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt at a meeting of Arab states reportedly opposed bids condemning the normalization of relations with the Israeli regime.

Russia's RT Arabic television news network reported in March 2019 that Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al ash-Sheikh, the speaker of Saudi Arabia's Consultative Assembly, together with his Emirati and Egyptian counterparts had opposed a paragraph in the final communiqué of the 29th Conference of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union in the Jordanian capital city of Amman, which demanded an end to efforts aimed at normalizing ties with Israel and condemned all forms of rapprochement with the occupying regime.

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