Saudi Arabia won’t resume its Gaza war-disrupted efforts to normalize relations with Israel if there are no steps toward forming a Palestinian state, the kingdom’s top diplomat said.
During an interview with CNN in Davos, Switzerland, that aired on Jan. 21, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan reiterated that Palestinian statehood is a prerequisite for his country to continue with the plan to normalize relations with Israel or to contribute to Gaza’s reconstruction.
“Are you saying unequivocally that if there is not a credible and irreversible path to a Palestinian state, there will not be normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel?” CNN’s Fareed Zakaria asked.
“That’s the only way we’re going to get a benefit,” Prince Faisal replied. “So, yes, because we need stability, and only stability will come through resolving the Palestinian issue.”
When asked whether Saudi Arabia will help fund rebuilding the war-torn Gaza, he said that while Saudi financial assistance isn’t off the table, it could happen only when there is a “solution” that could ensure long-term peace in the region.
“As long as we’re able to find a pathway to a solution—a resolution, a pathway that means that we’re not going to be here again in a year or two, then we can talk about anything,” the Saudi envoy said, adding that it is unacceptable for Gaza to return to the status quo before Hamas terrorists started a full-on assault by air, land, and sea against Israel last October—a bottom line on which leadership in both Washington and Jerusalem seem to agree upon.
“If we are just resetting to the status quo before Oct. 7, in a way that sets us up for another round of this, as we have seen in the past, we’re not interested in that conversation,” he added.
Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich Middle East powerhouse and custodian to the two holiest landmarks of the Islamic world, was on a path toward signing what would be a historic deal reconciling with Israel. Such a deal would mark a significant diplomatic victory for the Saudi-led Sunni Gulf Arab coalition over their longtime Shiite rival Iran, which champions a staunch anti-Israel foreign policy.
Assured by Riyadh’s willingness to continue on such a path, Washington has stepped in to play the role of deal broker. In 2020, backed by then-President Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia gave its blessing to neighbors United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to formally recognize Israel. For decades, the two Gulf monarchies have boycotted Israel, insisting they wouldn’t establish ties until Israel’s dispute with the Palestinians was settled.
The succeeding Biden administration also makes Israel’s normalization of relations with Arab states a diplomatic priority. However, the Saudi–Israel rapprochement process was disrupted last year when the Hamas attack reignited the war, which is now rippling across the region as Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen step up attacks on U.S. military assets.
Days after the initial attack, U.S. President Joe Biden said the Hamas invasion was intended, at least in part, to foil the potential normalization of Jerusalem’s relations with Riyadh.
Washington Links Palestinian Statehood to Saudi–Israel Reconciliation
Also speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for a more holistic Middle East strategy, for the first time suggesting that the question of Palestinian statehood shouldn’t be put aside during the Saudi–Israel normalization talks.In a conversation with New York Times foreign policy writer Thomas Friedman, Mr. Blinken suggested that the so-called two-state solution is for Israel’s own good, in terms of national security.
“If you take a regional approach, and if you pursue integration with security, with a Palestinian state, all of a sudden you have a region that’s come together in ways that answer the most profound questions that Israel has been trying to answer for years,” Mr. Blinken said at the world’s biggest gathering of globalist elites.
“And what has heretofore been [Israel’s] single biggest concern in terms of security, Iran, is suddenly isolated, along with its proxies, and will have to make decisions about what it wants its future to be,” he continued. “If we can change the larger direction of a region like the Middle East, a lot of these other problems will be minimized, if not totally eliminated.”
It would take Israeli decision-makers to adopt a certain mindset that’s open to the potential scenario of a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, Mr. Blinken added, conceding that such a change of mindset would be “very difficult and challenging.”
Netanyahu Defies Washington Over Palestinian State
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a political party that is opposed to Palestinian statehood, recently said that his actions over the years prevented the formation of such a state.“I am the only one who will prevent a Palestinian state in Gaza and [the West Bank] after the war,” Mr. Netanyahu told a group of lawmakers in the ruling Likud Party, Times of Israel reported.
On Jan. 20, he took to social media to double down on that position following a conversation with President Biden about Gaza’s future, suggesting that a two-state solution is incompatible with Israel’s national interest.
“I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan—and this is contrary to a Palestinian state,” the prime minister wrote in a post on X.
“It’s up to the Israeli people to decide who the prime minister is,” Prince Faisal said, when asked about Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks. “I’m not going to get into that discussion. I will just say that in order for the region to see true peace, to see real integration that delivers economic and social benefits for all of us, including Israel, is through peace, through a credible irreversible process through a Palestinian state.
“We are fully ready—not just Saudi Arabia, but as Arab countries, to engage in that conversation,” he continued. “I would hope that the Israelis would be as well, but it’s up to them to make that decision.”
