رئيس «الوطني الفلسطيني» لـ«عكاظ»: السعودية تنقذ الفلسطينيين من الارتطام بـ«المجهول»

At the most critical turning point reached by the Palestinian cause amidst a "desolate" road that the Palestinian Authority is traversing, and before colliding with the "unknown," the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took action in full coordination with the Élysée Palace and convinced more than 125 countries to sign the "New York Declaration," which calls for ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state.

The "New York Declaration," issued by the joint presidency of the International Peace Conference in Paris and Riyadh, which was signed by about 125 countries and issued by the foreign ministers of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, and Spain, came as a culmination of a Saudi-French effort after being adopted as a new international reference framework to advance the political settlement process in Palestine.

The "New York Declaration" carried 40 points that formed an important milestone in the peace process in the Middle East, with a lever that Riyadh and Paris worked on through all diplomatic means, according to what the President of the Palestinian National Council, Ruhi Fattouh, told "Okaz."

The Palestinian official sees that the "New York Declaration," which emphasized the necessity of a comprehensive and immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, ensuring the unobstructed delivery of humanitarian aid, the release of prisoners, and the cessation of settlement activities in the West Bank, presented a new Arab vision put forth by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This vision comes as a continuation of the Arab Peace Initiative that originated in Riyadh in 2002 and was adopted by the Arab Summit in Beirut. He pointed out that the "New York Declaration" adopted comprehensiveness in its proposal and provided complete alternatives, in addition to launching a support package for peace, which includes providing direct financial support to the Palestinian Authority and forming an international donor group to monitor the implementation of reforms and a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, alongside establishing a "regional security architecture" that ensures mutual stability and includes arrangements for mutual protection among the parties.

Fattouh considered that the heroic work carried out by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, led by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, reaffirmed the importance of the Kingdom as a central axis in supporting and advocating for the Palestinian cause and the Arab right, as well as supporting the establishment of peace in the region.

The President of the Palestinian National Council believes that the rare and remarkable Saudi-French support process provided a precise engineering operation to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and thus the Arab-Israeli conflict, by affirming that the recognition of the State of Palestine is a fundamental condition for any potential normalization process with Israel and that regional peace cannot be achieved without a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause that guarantees the full national rights of the Palestinian people.

The President of the Palestinian National Council confirmed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has dotted the i's and crossed the t's, sending a strong message to the world from the heart of New York that the time has come to end the Palestinian suffering through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Fattouh stated that the presence of two-thirds of the members of the Security Council, thanks to the joint Saudi-French diplomacy, formed a decisive message by urging the conference to demand an end to direct and indirect military support that contributes to fueling the war on Gaza and pressuring Israel to lift the imposed restrictions on the crossings and release about 2 billion euros of funds owed to the Palestinian Authority by Israel.