Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Prince Faisal bin Farhan will become the first Saudi foreign minister to visit the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a diplomatic source told AFP, as the Gaza war drags on and Riyadh pushes for Palestinian statehood.
The top Saudi diplomat will head a delegation to Ramallah, a Palestinian embassy source said, the first such trip since Israel first occupied the Palestinian territory in 1967.
Prince Faisal’s trip was announced as Israel vowed to build a “Jewish Israeli state” in the West Bank, after doubling down on plans to expand settlements there.
“A ministerial delegation led by the minister of foreign affairs will go to Ramallah on Sunday,” the source told AFP.
Saudi Arabia sent a lower-level delegation to Ramallah in September 2023, its first since 1967, not long before Hamas’s October 7 attack triggered the Gaza war.
Next month, Saudi Arabia and France will co-chair an international conference meant to resurrect the two-state solution at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
