Yasser Arafat refused Camp David Agreement after threats from Hafez Al-Assad: ex-Saudi security chief

He also rejected what he described as “the daring of the Palestinian leadership against the Gulf states,” considering their actions as ‘unacceptable’ after they criticized Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for reaching a normalization agreement with Israel.

The former Saudi intelligence chief considered that “the Palestinian issue is a national issue and a just cause, but its leaders are failing.” He explained that “the Palestinian leaders always bet on the losing side, and this has a price.”

Bandar bin Sultan stressed that Egypt has tried since the era of former President Hosni Mubarak to reconcile the Palestinian leadership, specifically Hamas and Fatah.

In regards to the Yasser Arafat era, the Saudi prince said that the former President of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) wanted to reach an agreement at Camp David, but was forced to abandon this plan after a threat from an Arab leader.

The Saudi prince stated that former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told him that “he would have agreed to Camp David had it not been for Hafez al-Assad’s threat to him.”

Assad, who was President of Syria from 1971-2000, had criticized and suspended ties with Egypt after former President Anwar Al-Sadat reached a peace agreement with Israel at Camp David in 1978.