King Salman dedicates 29th Arab Summit to Jerusalem

CAIRO - 15 April 2018: King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud announced Sunday that the 29th Arab League Summit is the "Summit of Jerusalem," to emphasize the stature of the Palestinian cause in the Arab mind.

“I would like to announce calling the 29th Arab Summit the summit of Jerusalem to know far and wide that Palestine and its people are in the conscience of all Arabs and Muslims,” the Saudi king said, interrupting the speech of President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas.

The king also vowed to donate $150 million to the program of the Islamic Religious Endowments in Jerusalem, and another $50 million to UNRWA for Palestinian refugees relief.

The 29th session of the Arab Summit has a significant importance due to the hectic changes in the region following the US-led airstrike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the December decision of US President Donald Trump to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem and the Houthi aggression against the Saudi national security.

President Abbas stated that the American decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem made Washington a party in the conflict, calling on all Arabs to visit Jerusalem and not to consider it as normalization.

“The Israeli settlement is going on, backed by the US administration,” Abbas said during his speech, calling for holding an international conference for a full Palestinian membership in the United Nations.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi also stressed that Jerusalem is Arabic, saying that it is not negotiable.

“The Palestinian cause will remain the Arabs' main issue,” Sisi said during his speech.
A total of 16 leaders of the Arab countries met in Dhahran, Eastern Saudi Arabia, to participate in the 29th Arab League summit on Sunday.

UN General Assembly António Guterres, African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki, and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini attended the summit.