Saudi Arabia's King Abdulla sat in the same room with Israeli political leaders for the first time ever, during the UN Interfaith conference [1], held in New York, US.
Writing at Arabic Media Shack, Rob highlights [2] reactions from a few Egyptian newspapers, on how this historic meeting would impact the Arab-Israeli peace process.
At the blog, which describes itself as a non-partisan site which analyzes political, strategic, and security issues of the Middle East, Rob states:
Fahmy Huwedi and Tariq Al-Bashri, top Egyptian commentators, have scathing columns in today’s Al-Dostor, criticizing the King for refusing to bring up violence in Gaza while handing the Israelis a major PR victory. Bashri goes as far to say that the King sitting in the same room as Peres is no less significant as Sadat visiting Jerusalem in 1977. However, he then goes on to undermine the credibility of his argument by saying that the US and Israel are behind attempts to instigate Sunni-Shia conflict in order to create a new enemy or distraction for the Arabs, so that they no longer focus on Israel. He compares this to how the US allegedly instigated conflict between Libya and Egypt following the Camp David treaty, creating a “new enemy” for the Egyptians other than Israel. How can the US can be blamed for instigating Sunni-Shia strife when the top Sunni scholars, such as Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, have been the most vocal in their anti-Shia rhetoric.