Palestinian president set to visit Saudi Arabia for talks on Monday

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with Saudi King Salman and his Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The visit comes amid reports that Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh will visit the oil-rich kingdom on Monday for the first time in years.

Speaking to the official Palestine Voice radio station, Palestinian Ambassador in Riyadh Basem Al-Agha said Abbas will discuss Palestinian developments with the Saudi officials during his visit.

Abbas will speak about the "Zionist [Israeli] crimes in Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher [in occupied East Jerusalem] and the Palestinian suffering from the Israeli occupation,” he added.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia hosted a ministerial meeting of Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates during which participants strongly condemned Israeli assaults on worshippers at Al-Aqsa complex and measures that undermine the two-state solution.

Tensions escalated across the Palestinian territories last week after Israeli forces forcibly worshippers from inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli raids on the mosque triggered rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, with Israel retaliating with air and artillery shelling.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar