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move to the Arab people” (Labelle 2011 , 261). Soon afterwards, Roosevelt
promised the Saudi monarch that he “would take no action, in my capacity
as Chief of the Executive Branch of this Government, which might prove
hostile to the Arab people” (Taylor 2015 ).
History, however, took a different trajectory. Shortly after the Yalta
Conference, President Roosevelt passed away and was succeeded by Harry
S. Truman. His firm but tacit assurance of support to Chaim Weizmann
paved the way for the Zionist leadership opting for the unilateral declara-
tion of independence just hours before the British departure from man-
date Palestine. As a founding member of the Arab League, Saudi Arabia
was vehemently opposed to the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine and
voted against the partition plan which was endorsed by the majority mem-
bers of the UN (UNISPAL 1979 ). When full-fledged Arab-Israeli hostili-
ties began on 15 May 1948, Saudi Arabia joined other Arab countries and
sent a small contingent of forces which fought under the Egyptian com-
mand in the eastern sector of mandate Palestine.
The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 also highlighted the Arab weakness,
internal disharmony and hence defeat. The formation of Israel was accom-
panied by rest areas of mandate Palestine coming under Egypt and Jordan;
while the former kept the Gaza Strip under its military control, the latter
annexed the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Hashemite control
of the Old City of Jerusalem also included the third holiest Islamic shrine
the al-Aqsa Mosque and came to be seen as a subtle challenge to the Saudi
control of Mecca and Medina. The All-Palestine Government proclaimed
in Gaza City on 22 September 1948 (Shlaim 1990 ) was quickly recog-
nized by Saudi Arabia but the Jordanian decision to annex the West Bank
in the wake of the Jericho Conference of December 1948 ended the pros-
pect of the independent Palestinian entity.
Thus, when the UN-initiated armistice talks began in the Rhode Islands
on 12 January 1948, Riyadh was in favour of a peaceful resolution of the
problem. In a letter addressed to the UN on 8 February 1949, Saudi
Arabia informed that it would accept “the decisions which have already
been adopted or which may be adopted by the Arab League, in respect to
the situation in Palestine” (UNGA 1948 ). This was followed by a similar
move by Iraq, which also sent troops to ‘liberate’ Palestine. It was only
after that Egypt became the first Arab country to sign the Armistice
Agreement with Israel on 24 February and was followed by Lebanon,
Jordan and Syria.
P. R. KUMARASWAMY AND MD. M. QUAMAR