Saudi king tells Obama to 'impose solution' on Mideast
Saudi King Abdullah said Arabs were losing patience with the Middle East peace stalemate and called on US President Barack Obama to "impose a solution," a leading Arab newspaper said on Sunday.
Saudi King Abdullah said Arabs were losing patience with the Middle East peace stalemate and called on US President Barack Obama to "impose a solution," a leading Arab newspaper said on Sunday.
"We want from you a serious engagement to solve the Palestinian question and impose a solution if necessary," Abdullah reportedly told Obama during their talks on Wednesday, according to "informed sources" quoted in Al-Hayat.
A solution to the Palestinian issue would be "the magic key" to resolving all other conflicts in the region, Abdullah told Obama at their meeting in Riyadh.
"Arab patience is running out," the king warned, saying Arabs would rather devote their time to "forming a new generation that can face the future with knowledge and (the ability to) work."
The Saudi monarch is behind a 2002 peace initiative which offers Israel normal relations with Arab states in return for its withdrawal from land occupied in 1967.
The Arab initiative was not "a result of weakness," Abdullah said, but came about because "Arabs want peace and they have a real, sincere desire to achieve peace and live in peace."
Obama met the Saudi monarch on the eve of a landmark speech in Cairo aimed at healing deep rifts with the world's Muslims.
In an interview published Saturday in Newsweek magazine, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Washington could use its aid as a lever to push Israel into a two-state settlement with the Palestinians.