Saudi Arabia to co-host Israel-Palestine 'peace forum' at UN General Assembly

Saudi Arabia will host an event at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) next week aimed at rekindling the Palestine-Israel peace process, according to reports.

The "Peace Day Effort for Middle East Peace" initiative will be held on the fringes of the UNGA meeting in New York on Monday and organised by Saudi Arabia, the Arab League, and EU, with Jordan and Egyptian participation.

It comes as Saudi-Israel normalisation talks continue, with Riyadh saying that Palestinian statehood is at the heart of their negotiating strategy.

Palestinian and Israeli officials will not attend the forum but one UN diplomat told The Times of Israel the initiative will "invigorate" the dormant "Middle East peace process".

Saudi Arabia hosted another forum at the UN last year marking the 2oth anniversary of the Arab Peace Initiative, a plan to recognise Israel if Palestinian statehood is achieved.

Many see this Arab League process as being undermined by the so-called Abraham Accords, when the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan unilaterally normalised relations with Israel in 2020.

Riyadh insists that the Palestinians are at the centre of the US-led talks on normalisation initiative with Israel and invited a Palestinian Authority delegation to Riyadh to put forward their demands.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also highlighted on Thursday that Palestine has been a key point in talks, after Israeli reports that Riyadh cared little about this issue.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government - which includes key settler leaders - has already ruled out a new peace process with Palestinians or statehood. The Palestinian Authority sees no hope in talks with the current Israeli administration.

The new push by Saudi Arabia comes on the 30th anniversary of the failed Oslo Accords, which has seen Israel entrench its power in the occupied West Bank and killings of Palestinians there the highest in years.