Saudi FM: Liberating Palestinian territories, restoring rights 'our priority'

Saudi Arabia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal stressed Tuesday the necessity of finding a comprehensive and final solution to the Palestinian issue not only to reach a ceasefire truce in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
After the final session of the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Prince Al-Faisal, who chaired the meeting, said in a press conference that the actual objectives are to liberate fully the occupied Palestinian territories and restore rights to Palestinians.
He described the current negotiations between Israel and Palestinian factions for a ceasefire truce in the Strip as "an unessential step" to meet the rights of Palestinian people.
He pointed out that Palestinian issue should be discussed as a whole and negotiations between the two sides and other essential parts relating to the issue must be tackled.
"We don't want current solutions; Israel wants to discuss partial matters such as a ceasefire and providing security to Israel," the Saudi official said, adding that Israel wants such matters to be on the top of the discussions.
He said there is no comparison between the reactions of Israel and the reactions of Palestinian factions, including Hamas, which defend themselves.
"How can we say that Israel defends its nationals and it basically occupies Palestine, in return Hamas defends its occupied territories," Al-Faisal said.
"Israel claims that is defends its territories, however it kills thousands of Palestinians. Yet Hamas was accused of kidnapping some Israelis and was deemed as a "terrorist organization," then where is justice?" he wondered.
He stressed that Israel has no right to defend itself as there is no an international law in the world that allows a state, which occupies another state, to defend itself.
Concerning talks between Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and Egyptian President Abdelfatah Al-Sisi about the latest developments in Gaza, the Saudi minister said that the two countries do their best and call on the prominent players of the international community to press Israel to stop its aggression on Palestinian people.
In a related development, Al-Faisal called on member states of the OIC, which hesitated over the Palestinian issue in the UN Human Rights Council, to change their minds and be committed to principles of the council to support Palestine.
He stressed support of member states of the OIC to Palestinians will make the world realizes that Israel could not continue its aggression on Palestinians without paying the price.
Also, this makes Israel realizes that peace is the only option for its existence, he said, lauding Egyptians efforts to reach a ceasefire truce.
The reconstruction process of the Strip has many difficulties due to the ongoing siege imposed by Israel the Strip, which prevents entering required materials for rebuilding there.
He urged the UN to facilitate entering such materials, noting his country will co-operate with parties participating in the reconstruction.
For his part, the Secretary General of the OIC Iyad Amin Madani said that the ongoing humanitarian disaster from which Palestinians in Gaza suffer will make the OIC bear individual responsibility to take required measures to face that disaster.