UPDATE - 1st Saudi ambassador to present credentials to Palestinian president

UPDATES WITH PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY’S STATEMENT, REVISES DECK, EDITS THROUGH

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The first Saudi ambassador to Palestine, Naif bin Bandar al-Sudairi, is set to present his credentials to President Mahmoud Abbas within days, a Palestinian official said.

“We welcome His Excellency the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the State of Palestine, who will present his official credentials to His Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas within a few days,” Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Executive Committee, said on X social media platform.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said al-Sudairi will visit Ramallah on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“The visit is a historic step to consolidate and develop bilateral relations between the two countries and to open more horizons for joint cooperation in all fields,” the ministry said in a statement, extolling Saudi Arabia’s “honest stances” in support of the Palestinian people.

On Aug. 13, the official Saudi Press Agency reported that al-Sudairi, who is also the Saudi ambassador to Jordan, “formally presented a copy of his credentials as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Non-Resident Ambassador to the State of Palestine and Consul General in Jerusalem.”

Al-Sudairi is the first Saudi ambassador to Palestine. The kingdom had a Consulate General in Jerusalem, but it was closed with Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967, when the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was under Jordanian administration at the time.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara