Hamas blasts Netanyahu’s visit to Saudi Arabia as 'insult' to Palestinian cause

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s secret flight to Saudi Arabia, where he reportedly met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, calling the move an “insult” to the Palestinian cause.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri described the Israeli premier's meeting, which was reportedly held in Neom on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, as “dangerous” and urged Saudi authorities to “clarify what happened because this represents an insult to the nation and the squandering of Palestinian rights.”

A member of Netanyahu’s cabinet and Likud party on Monday confirmed reports that Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia for a clandestine meeting with the kingdom’s de facto ruler and the US secretary of state.

Earlier in the day, Israel’s Kan public radio and Army Radio said Mossad chief Yossi Cohen also attended the meeting.

Netanyahu secretly visits Saudi Arabia, meets bin Salman: Report

Israeli media reports say prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret visit to Saudi Arabia Sunday and met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Sunday’s meeting marked the first known encounter between senior Israeli and Saudi officials, amid attempts by Pompeo to coax the Riyadh regime to follow its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

Islamic jihad: Netanyahu’s visit prelude to more aggression against Palestinians

The Islamic Jihad movement also condemned Saudi Arabia for hosting the Israeli prime minister, warning that the development could be a prelude to more extensive aggression against the Palestinian nation, the Islamic Ummah and Islam’s sacred sites.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Islamic Jihad noted that Netanyahu’s Saudi visit amounted to treason against the cause of Palestine as well as betrayal of Jerusalem al-Quds and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

“Such a visit to a country, which claims to be custodian of the sacred sites of the Islamic Ummah will encourage the Zionist regime to continue its vicious aggressive policy toward the sacred land of Palestine,” the Palestinian movement said.

‘Saudi-led coalition states openly engaged in normalization with Israel’

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has condemned Netanyahu’s visit to Saudi Arabia, saying members of the Saudi-led military coalition waging a devastating war on Yemen are explicitly involved in normalization of ties with the Israeli regime.

“Netanyahu visited Saudi Arabia as part of preparations for full normalization [with the kingdom], after Saudi officials welcomed such steps by other regional states. The countries that attack Yemen and besiege its people, namely Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, tend to become fully, formally and publicly involved in the Zionist project,”  Ansarullah spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said in a statement on Monday afternoon.

He added, “The Saudi-led coalition’s member states are making use of their military capabilities and all available means in an open war against Yemeni people. As a result, the exact nature of the ongoing aggression on Yemen as a US-Zionist plot has been revealed.”

MbS would get killed by Saudi royal family if Riyadh normalized ties with Israel: Dissident

A Saudi dissident academic says Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fears being killed by his own relatives if the Riyadh regime normalized ties with Israel.

“The House of Saud had paved the way for its own normalization, before some countries officially took the measure, in a bid to make the move acceptable. But, they failed to convince regional peoples that they are the advocates of the sanctities of the Muslim world,” the Ansarullah spokesman pointed out.

Abdul-Salam further argued that Saudi Arabia, which is supposed to act as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is expected to guard the Grand Mosque, also called Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, but it has turned into an entity that conspires against Islam and Muslims.

Following the September 15 signing of US-brokered agreements on normalization between Israel and the UAE and also Bahrain, President Donald Trump announced on October 23 at the White House that Sudan and Israel had also agreed to normalize relations.

Normalization act of betrayal against al-Quds issue, Palestinian cause: Senior Hezbollah official

A senior Hezbollah official denounces normalization with Israel as an act of betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

Trump sealed the agreement in a phone call with Netanyahu and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Chairman of the Sovereignty Council Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan, senior US officials said.

Sudan’s acting Foreign Minister Omar Gamareldin, however, later said the accord will depend on approval from its yet-to-be formed legislative council.

It is unclear when the assembly will be formed under a power-sharing deal between the country’s military officers and civilians.

The normalization deals have drawn widespread condemnation from Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. They say the deals ignore their rights and do not serve the Palestinian cause.

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