Saudi Arabia among countries expected to sign deal with Israel, Trump says

US President Donald Trump said yesterday he expects Saudi Arabia to normalise relations with Israel following the diplomatic move taken by Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates at a White House ceremony earlier, AFP reported.

Trump told reporters at the White House that the Kingdom is among several countries he believes are on the verge of launching diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, saying that after speaking with King Salman, he thinks the country will do so “at the right time”.

“We’ll have at least five or six countries coming along very quickly… They want to see peace. They’ve been fighting for a long time…. They’re warring countries but they’re tired of fighting.. You’re going to see a lot of very great activity. It’s going to be peace in the Middle East.” Trump assessed that “most of the countries… in the Middle East want to sign this deal.”

His speech came as the UAE and Bahrain signed ‘peace deals’ with Israel on the White House lawn yesterday in a move that has caused outrage within the Middle East and especially within Palestinians circles.

Neighbouring Gulf state Qatar, however, rejected normalising ties with Israel, stressing that this is not the core of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

Speaking to Bloomberg on Monday, spokesperson of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lolwah Rashid Al-Khater said: “We don’t think that normalization was the core of this conflict and hence it can’t be the answer.”

READ: Normalisation has never benefited the Palestinians