Saudi Arabia's permanent representative to the United Nations voiced Tuesday the kingdom's readiness to normalize relations with Israel on the condition that the Arab Peace Initiative was implemented.

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The announcement was published in an English-language interview conducted by the Saudi newspaper Arab News with Abdallah Al-Mouallimi.

"The official Saudi position is that we are ready to normalize relations with Israel as soon as the terms of the [the Arab Peace Initiative] that was put forwards in 2002 are implemented," Al-Mouallimi said.

He explained that the initiative "calls for ending the occupation of all Arab lands occupied by Israel in 1967, establishing an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, and granting the Palestinians the right to self-determination.

"Once this happens, it is not only Saudi Arabia but the entire Islamic world, and the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will follow us … in recognizing Israel and establishing relations with it," Al-Mouallimi said. 

The Arab Peace Initiative, also known as the Saudi Initiative, was adopted by the League of Arab States during a summit in 2002 in Beirut, Lebanon. It calls for the establishment of an internationally recognized Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital.

"Time does not change right or wrong," Al-Mouallimi stressed, Arab News reported. "Israeli practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with regard to settlements, siege and deprive Palestinians of their dignity and rights."

In early November, a delegation of Jewish communities in the United States met with senior Saudi officials in the kingdom in efforts to advance normalization.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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The post 'Normalization with Israel conditional on Arab Peace Plan,' Saudi official says appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

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The El Al Boeing 737 made aviation history by cutting straight over Saudi territory en route to the UAE capital, where Israeli and Emirati officials will hold US-brokered normalization talks on Monday.

"Wishing us all salaam, peace and shalom, have a safe flight," the pilot, Captain Tal Becker, said on the intercom, in Arabic, English, and Hebrew, using all three languages to also announce the flight number and destination.

Passengers received swag bags filled with coronavirus protection gear – disinfectant gel and wipes – and some donned face masks emblazoned with the Israeli and Emirati flags.

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Delegates, who included President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and US national security adviser Robert O'Brien and his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, sat cheek by jowl with agents from the US Secret Service and Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency.

A spokesman for El Al said the plane was equipped with a C-Music anti-missile system on its rear carriage – standard for the 737s in the carrier's fleet.

A request by Reuters journalists to film inside the cockpit went up several chains of command before being approved.

"With two countries' NSAs (national security agencies) on board, you understand the sensitivity," an American delegate said.

There was also a bit of security flair to coronavirus checks mandated for journalists the weekend before the trip.

The post Tight security, and an Arabic greeting, on first Israel-UAE flight appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.