Kuwait says won't budge from 'fixed' anti-normalisation stance following UAE-Israel deal: reports
Kuwait says won't budge from 'fixed' anti-normalisation stance following UAE-Israel deal: reports
Despite a UAE-Israel so-called peace deal announced on Thursday, Kuwait said it would not change its stance on normalisation.
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Kuwait affirmed it would stand behind the Palestinian cause [Getty]
Kuwait has assured it will not follow the United Arab Emirates in forming ties with Israel, assuring its position on normalisation with the Jewish state is permanent, government sources said.
The Gulf state’s stance on normalisation with Israel is “fixed and will not change”, the sources said, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas.
“Kuwait maintains its position and will be the last country [on earth] to normalise with Israel,” the source said.
The news platform also affirmed its position on the matter was consistent with Kuwait’s decades-old established foreign policy approach toward the Israel-Palestine issue, saying it stood in support of the Palestinian cause.
The Middle East felt shockwaves after US President Donald Trump announced the agreement on Thursday, only the third between the Jewish state and an Arab country, after Egypt and Jordan.
Palestinians of all political leanings – from the secular Fatah of Mahmoud Abbas to the Hamas Islamists – have been unanimous in their condemnation of the deal, viewing the UAE as sacrificing the Palestinian cause to gain commercial relations with Israel.
While the agreement supposedly delays Israel's plans to unilaterally annex large swathes of the West Bank and Jordan Valley, many Palestinians feel betrayed.
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Just a day after the announcement, mastermind behind the 'Deal of the Century' and senior advisor to US President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner gave an interview with CNBC, claiming that Saudi Arabia will "inevitably" normalise relations with Israel.
"I do think we have other countries that are very interested in moving forward [with normalisation] and as that progresses I do think that it's an inevitability that Saudi Arabia and Israel will have fully normalised relations and they'll be able to do a lot of great things together," Kushner said.
Kushner added that the younger generation in Saudi Arabia wants to follow the UAE's footsteps and push forth with normalisation.
"They see Israel as almost the Silicon Valley of the Middle East and they want to be connected to it as a trading partner, as a technology partner, as a security partner," he said, describing young Saudis.
He added that older generations were "still stuck in conflicts of the past".
"You can't turn around a battleship overnight," he added.
Arab countries that have been cosy with Israel welcomed the Abu Dhabi's normalisation, but regional power Saudi Arabia, which also has covert ties to Israel, has remained noticeably silent.
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