Danny Ayalon (L) with Prince al- Faisal (archives)
Photo: Reuters
Saudi prince: Israel is America's sewer in Mideast
Riyadh's former ambassador to Washington accuses Obama Administration of 'failing to curb brutal Israeli policy of collective punishment, arbitrary arrests and killings'
WASHINGTON - Prince Turki al- Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, criticism the Obama Administration's "favoritism" towards Israel, which he dubbed America's "sewer" in the Middle East.
Speaking to the annual conference of the National Council for US-Arab Relations on Friday, al-Faisal Washington "has failed to curb the brutal Israeli policy of collective punishment, arbitrary arrests and killings" and criticized American officials "who rationalize, excuse, and condone Israeli intransigence while seeking to put more pressure on the Palestinians to concede even more."
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"It is these officials who propose that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's government should be rewarded, rather than sanctioned, for its intransigence,” he said.
Al-Faisal, ex-director of Saudi intelligence, also addressed the incentives package Obama reportedly offered Netanyahu in exchange for renewing the settlement construction moratorium in the West Bank.
According to reports, Netanyahu rejected the offer, leading to the current stalemate in the negotiations with the Palestinians.
According to him, Riyadh and other Arab countries had agreed to back the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks “under the United States-negotiated partial colony freeze," which expired on September 26.
"The US failed to stick to its assurances, and to add insult to injury, offered the Netanyahu government more money, arms, protection from UN sanctions and, shamefully, the stationing of Israeli troops on Palestinian territory as if the territory were part of American sovereign lands,” al-Faisal.
The Saudi prince also slammed the pro-Israel lobby, saying, “There has grown over the years a web of very tight and strong strings that bind the US to her client state, Israel.”
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