Saudi Arabia blasts Israel for citizenship offer

DUBAI, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -- Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia criticized Israel on Monday for offering citizenship to Palestinians in Jerusalem, saying the move aimed to "demolish" the Middle East peace process, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

"The cabinet voiced regret over Israeli attempts to demolish peace efforts, and the latest attempt was granting Israeli citizenship to tens of Palestinians in Jerusalem in order to increase the number of Israelis at the expense of Arabs and using that in negotiations over Jerusalem," the agency said.

"Saudi Arabia supports the Palestinian people's legal right to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital," it quoted a cabinet statement as saying.

The status of Jerusalem was the main stumbling block in last month's failed Israeli-Palestinian summit at Camp David.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. Israel has said Jerusalem is its "united, eternal capital." But Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Last week, Jerusalem's top Moslem cleric renewed a religious edict prohibiting Palestinians in East Jerusalem from seeking Israeli citizenship after Israel's interior ministry announced that application forms for Palestinians seeking Israeli citizenship were available at its offices.

Most Palestinian residents of Jerusalem carry Israeli identity cards but have Jordanian citizenship. Israeli law prohibits dual citizenship for Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

Since 1967, 1,200 Palestinians from East Jerusalem have received Israeli citizenship, an Israeli Interior Ministry official had said.

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