THE JERUSALEM POST: Obama Starts Outreach Bid in S. Arabia
President Barack Obama began his latest bid to repair ties with the Muslim world on Wednesday by seeking the counsel of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina.
"The United States and Saudi Arabia have a long history of friendship. We have a strategic relationship," Obama said as he visited the monarch's desert horse farm. The US president called Abdullah wise and gracious, adding: "I am confident that working together that the United States and Saudi Arabia can make progress on a whole host of issues of mutual interest."
In turn, Abdullah expressed his "best wishes to the friendly American people who are represented by a distinguished man who deserves to be in this position."
Meanwhile, according to a report in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Obama intended to appeal to the Saudi leadership to open an interest office in Tel Aviv as a goodwill gesture towards Israel that would signify the beginning of normalizing relations between Jerusalem and Riyadh.
According to the report, the office would allow Israelis to apply for visas to visit Saudi Arabia as tourists and allow El Al aircraft to fly through Saudi air space.
There are indications that the Saudis will not accede to proposed gestures, but rather insist that Israel first make confidence-building measures, such as dismantling West Bank settlements or committing to a two-state solution, said the paper.
It is known that Israel has trade relations with Saudi Arabia, but this is a sensitive issue that is often kept quiet by both parties.
According to the Manufacturers Association of Israel, Israeli exports to Saudi Arabia amounted to around $33,000 in the first quarter of 2009.
In addition, every year, hundreds of Israeli Muslims head to Saudi Arabia to participate in the Hajj, the main annual pilgrimage to Mecca. They usually travel through Jordan where they are given temporary Jordanian documents, but the Saudi authorities are well aware that these tourists are Israeli and they turn a blind eye to the fact that they are citizens of Israel.
As the creator of the Arab Initiative, Saudi Arabia plays an important role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The plan was launched in 2002 as the Saudi Peace Plan and relaunched in 2007 under the title, the Arab Initiative. At least two points of the plan - making Jerusalem the capital of a Palestinian state and acknowledging the "right of return" for Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 and their descendants - are unacceptable to Israel.
The Obama administration has been seeking Arab acceptance to modify the plan in order to make it more palatable to Israel, even though the Arab League has said the plan is not subject to changes. >>> By AP and the Media Line | Wednesday, June 03, 2009
