Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Sunday will become the first Saudi foreign minister to visit the West Bank in decades, a top Palestinian official confirmed to AFP.
The top Saudi diplomat will head a delegation of Arab foreign ministers to Ramallah, where they will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein al-Sheikh told CNN on Friday.
Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Mazen Ghoneim told Saudi state-backed Al Arabiya that Prince Faisal will be joined by counterparts from Egypt, Jordan and “other countries.” The Palestinian Al Quds newspaper reported earlier this week that foreign ministers from Qatar, Bahrain and Oman will also join Prince Faisal.
Saudi Arabia sent a lower-level delegation to Ramallah in September 2023, its first since Israel took over control of the territory in 1967.
Given Israel’s control of the borders, its authorization will be required for the Arab ministers to enter the West Bank.
The rare ministerial visit comes as the war in Gaza nears its 20th month, and Ghoneim said it marks “a clear message [that] the Palestinian cause is a central issue to Arabs and Muslims.”
Next month, Saudi Arabia and France will co-chair an international conference meant to resurrect the two-state solution at the United Nations headquarters in New York. France is considering recognizing a Palestinian state during the confab. Israel is already taking steps, it says are aimed at combating the effort, including establishing new settlements throughout the West Bank to further harm efforts to advance a two-state solution.
Sunday’s visit will also mark a further boost to the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority, which has faced pressure from Arab and Western allies to reform, as they push for the body to replace Hamas as the governing authority in the Gaza Strip after the war. Israel has blocked such a transition, but is facing mounting pushback from Arab allies, who have expressed willingness to assist in the post-war management of Gaza if Jerusalem allows Ramallah to gain a foothold there.