‘Two-state solution’ holds key to Mideast future, says Saudi minister
World leaders and business executives attend key economic summit in Riyadh
Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh saw a host of world leaders and business executives fly in on Sunday for a two-day special World Economic Summit that has drawn praise from attendees.
Speaking from within the lavish King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center, Saudi Minisof State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir called the meeting a testament to Kingdom’s role in the global economy.
“It’s a reflection of the world’s respect for what Saudi Arabia has been able to do in terms of its economic transformation, in terms of its Vision 2030, in terms of what it’s done in the role that it plays in the global financial markets, the global energy markets, as well as in terms of initiatives that Saudi Arabia has done with regards to renewable energy and with regards to combating and confronting climate change and having the presence of such a high-level participation in Saudi Arabia,” said Al-Jubeir.
According to him, the key to getting the Middle East region back on track toward development and prosperity is ending the Gaza conflict.
Al-Jubeir said the Israel-Hamas conflict raging in the enclave only served to “undercut” any attempts to integrate the region and “unleash its potential.”
“(With the situation in Gaza), our No. 1 priority is to stop the fighting,” he said. “Our second priority is to ensure enough humanitarian assistance goes into the Gaza Strip so that we avoid starvation, disease, and we take care of the people there,” he added.
“In the long term, we need to find a way to end this conflict (for good), and the only way we end it is by having a two-state solution, so we need to chart a clear, timebound irreversible path to a Palestinian state.”
Multiple high-level panels took place at the forum tackling a range of issues and topics of global concern.
Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said the conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and elsewhere had “put a lot of pressure on economic emotion” and described economies as being “impacted by sentiments.”
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan also reiterated that only a commitment to a twostate solution could prevent the conflict in Gaza from reoccurring. “We in the region are not going to focus only on solving the criter sis of the moment, we’re going to look at how we can solve the bigger problem in the context of Gaza. That is, a real commitment to a two-state solution, that is, a credible, irreversible path to a Palestinian state,” he said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said during a separate panel that 110,000 people had been killed or wounded in Gaza since Oct. 7 and that 75 percent of the territory in the enclave had been destroyed by Israeli military action.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to speak on the second day of the forum, as his counterparts from France and Britain follow to attend a meeting with other regional leaders in Saudi Arabia.