US President says other countries will join the UAE-Israel normalization agreement to be signed next week.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday held a press conference in which he commented on the peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that is expected to be signed next week.
“Countries are lining up that want to go into [the peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates],” Trump declared.
“The big ones are going to be coming in. I spoke to the king of Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Trump also commented on the stubborn refusal of the Palestinian Arabs to join the “Deal of the Century” and said, “The Palestinians will get back into the fold, you’ll see.”
Trump will host a signing ceremony for the Israel-UAE deal on September 15 that will include delegations of Israel and the UAE.
Saudi Arabia so far has poured cold water on the idea of an agreement with Israel. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz told Trump this week there would be no normalization with Israel without Palestinian statehood.
Trump recently said he expected Saudi Arabia to join the Israel-UAE deal. A senior member of the Saudi royal family later stressed that Saudi Arabia’s price for normalizing relations with Israel is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, but there have been rumors in recent years of rapprochement between the two countries. Saudi officials have denied those reports.
While Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel, last week the kingdom said it would allow flights between UAE and Israel, including by Israeli airliners, to use its airspace.
(Arutz 7).