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11-01-2024
WASHINGTON/ RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UK says it is interested in normalizing relations with Israel after the war in Gaza, but that any deal must lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Prince Khalid bin Bandar told media a pact was “close” when the Kingdom paused US-brokered talks after Hamas’s deadly attacks on Israel on 7 October.
Saudi Arabia still believed in establishing ties with Israel despite the “deplorable” casualty figures in Gaza, he said, but it would not “come at the cost of the Palestinian people”.
The ambassador also warned that there was a “failure of humanity” over Gaza, with the international community not doing enough to end the fighting.
He also said he would like to see the UK “moderate its position” and “treat Israel the same way it treats everyone else”. “The blind spot towards Israel is a real problem because it provides a blind spot to peace,” he added.
Saudi Arabia is a leader of the Arab and Islamic world. It has never formally recognized Israel since its creation in 1948, and a deal normalizing ties would represent a major breakthrough for the Jewish state.
In late September, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler had declared in a US television interview that “every day we get closer” to an agreement.
While Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the Palestinian issue was “very important” and that any agreement would have to “ease the life of the Palestinians”, he did not declare that it would be dependent on advances towards the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
The public position of Palestinian leaders is that they will reject outright a deal if it does not leave them with a state, but earlier that month officials had said they were privately demanding a cash boost and more control of land in the occupied West Bank in return for engaging with the US-backed Saudi-Israel process.
Saudi officials reportedly asked the US to pause the three-way discussions a few days after the 7 October attacks, in which about 1,300 people were killed and 240 others taken hostage by hundreds of Hamas gunmen who infiltrated southern Israeli communities from Gaza.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 23,200 people have been killed in the territory during the military campaign that Israel subsequently launched with the aim of destroying Hamas.
After meeting Crown Prince Mohammed on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters he had brought up the subject of normalization.
“There’s a clear interest here in pursuing that,” he said but “it will require that the conflict end in Gaza, and it will also clearly require that there be a practical pathway to a Palestinian state.” (Int’l News Desk)
