Even though American officials insist that the prospects of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia are still alive under the current circumstances, the top Saudi diplomat highlighted a different vision for peace in Palestine.
The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said that there can be no normalization with Israel without first resolving the Palestinian issue.
“That’s the only way we’re going to get the benefit,” the Saudi top diplomat said in an interview with the American CNN, which was aired on Sunday.
“So, yes, because we need stability and only stability will come through resolving the Palestinian issue,” he added.
Bin Farhan’s remarks were made on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum held last week in Davos, Switzerland but were only aired on Sunday.
The minister also reportedly called for a halt to Israel’s aggression on Gaza. “What we are seeing is the Israelis are crushing Gaza, the civilian population of Gaza,” he said. “This is completely unnecessary, completely unacceptable and has to stop.”
Top Saudi Diplomat Calls for Palestinian State, Condemns ‘Blatant Violations of International Law’
‘Palestine First’
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly reiterated its position on Palestine and Israel.
“The stability of the region rests on a just and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian cause,” he said, and “the establishment of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the Kingdom’s top diplomat said in an interview last September.
At the time, his comments came as a surprise to Israeli and US officials, following a Fox News Interview with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on September 20, which seemed to be open to the possibility of normalizing with Tel Aviv.
“The comment comes amid increased talk about a potential historic normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, with Riyadh said to demand Israeli concessions to Palestinians that nevertheless fall short of giving them an independent state,” the Times of Israel newspaper commented at the time.
Overwhelming Saudi Majority Rejects Normalization, Supports Resistance – Poll
Saudi Solidarity
The possibility of a normalization seemed even further following the Hamas military operation on October 7 and the subsequent genocidal war carried out by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Last December, a poll conducted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, revealed that a stunning 96 percent of Saudi citizens think that “Arab countries should immediately break all diplomatic, political, economic, and any other contacts with Israel, in protest against its military action in Gaza.”
The poll, conducted from November 14 to December 6 on a representative sample of 1,000 Saudi citizens, was published on Thursday.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
