Saudi King meets with his Jordanian counterpart

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Jordan’s Monarch, King Abdullah II underlined on Tuesday the need to intensify Arab, Islamic and international efforts to protect the historic rights of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem.

This came during a summit held at the King Salman Palace in Riyadh, where talks focused on developments in the region, especially the serious repercussions of US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to transfer the US embassy to it.

The two leaders warned that this measure “will further complicate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and affect the region’s security and stability.” The Jordanian monarch held a separate meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, touching on the serious negative repercussions of the US decision.

The meeting highlighted that the recent announcement on Jerusalem would hamper efforts to push the peace process forward, stressing that historical rights of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and other occupied territories were guaranteed by international resolutions.

Prince Mohammed and King Abdullah II also exchanged views on bilateral relations and promising opportunities to promote ties at various levels and discussed joint efforts in the fight against terrorism.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Jordan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Kayed said that King Abdullah’s visit to Riyadh was an indicator to the resolve to enhance Arab cooperation in general and between Saudi Arabia and Jordan in particular and would guarantee the political will to bolster cooperation at the political, security and economic levels.

Al-Kayed added that the Saudi-Jordanian summit would yield important results for issues of common interest, stressing that the two countries’ bilateral relations were founded on strong institutional bases and highlighting promising political, trade and investment agreements between the two countries in various fields.

On the other hand, A Palestinian public opinion poll published Tuesday showed that the majority of the Palestinian public oppose the policy of President Mahmoud Abbas and demand him to step down.

The poll, conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey, suggests that 70 percent of respondents wanted Abbas to resign, while 26 percent wanted him to stay in office. The percentage of satisfaction with Abbas' performance is 31 percent, with a rate of dissatisfaction reaching 66 percent, said the poll.

If Abbas does not run for the next presidential elections, Marwan Barghouthi, a senior Fatah leader imprisoned in Israeli jail, would be the preferred candidate, who may earn 35 percent among other candidates, the poll said.

Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas political bureau, would earn 22 percent, added the poll, and former Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan would get 7 percent, if all run together. It added that Haniyeh would receive 53 percent of the votes, while Abbas would receive 41 percent if the two only compete as presidential candidates.

In case of a competition between Barghouthi and Haniyeh, Barghouthi would receive 58 percent, while Haniyeh would get 37 percent of the votes. The percentage of demands for resignation of president Abbas, according to the poll, reached 64 percent in the West Bank, and 80 percent in the Gaza Strip.

Those figures saw slight increase in the past three months, as the previous poll revealed 60 percent in the West Bank and 80 percent in the Gaza Strip. The latest poll also said that 51 percent of the respondents will call for the resignation of the consensus government headed by Rami Al-Hamdallah if it does not immediately lift the sanctions on the Gaza Strip. Around 38 percent support the continuation of the government's presence and performance.