Mohammed bin Salman tried to persuade Abbas to support US peace plan: Officials

(AhlulBayt News Agency) – Abbas was invited to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Tuesday where he held talks with King Salman and MbS.

The invitation came shortly following a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul where Abbas announced that he would no longer accept the US as a broker in the peace process.

However, on Tuesday MbS told Abbas that the US was “the only game in town” with regards to the peace process.

“The US is the only one with real influence on Israel, it’s the only country that can put pressure on Israel in any peace process and no one else can do [that], neither EU, nor Russia or China,” MbS told Abbas, according to Palestinian officials with knowledge of the meeting.

MbS told Abbas in a previous visit early this month that the US was “preparing for a peace deal, and this deal might not look good at the beginning but at the end it will be good.”

“At some point bin Salman warned President Abbas that if he doesn’t do the job in Lebanon, there are others who can do it, pointing to Mohammed Dahlan,” one official told MEE, referring to the dissident Fatah politician.