MBS: is Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution dead or alive?

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution shreds the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative by calling for:

• The merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one sovereign territorial entity
• Having its capital in Amman and not Jerusalem
• Being governed by the current rulers of Jordan for the last 100 years – the Hashemites – not the PLO or Hamas.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution would have needed MBS's approval before its publication in the Government-controlled Al Arabiya News, given it was trashing Saudi Arabia's foreign policy for the previous 20 years.

No Saudi Arabian citizen could expect to be walking Riyadh's streets the day after making such a public statement without MBS consent. Yet its author, Ali Shihabi, remains a member of the Board advising MBS on the construction of a US$500 billion futuristic mega city called Neom in north western Saudi Arabia, covering an area the size of Israel.

Significantly MBS has not rejected the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution in the 10 months since its publication. Neither have the leaders of those Arab parties most affected: Jordan's King Abdullah, PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, whose policies for the past 25 years will also become ancient history.

Time for MBS to break his silence by answering this one pressing question definitively and without further delay.