Palestinian statehood is our price, Saudi Arabia tells Israel
Saudi Arabia will not establish diplomatic ties with Israel unless the Palestinian issue is resolved first, the kingdom’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has said in an interview.
“In order for the region to see true peace, to see true stability and to see real integration that delivers economic and social benefits for all of us, including Israel, is through peace, through a credible, irreversible process to a Palestine state,” Prince Faisal told CNN on Sunday.
“We are fully ready. Not just Saudi Arabia, but as Arab countries, to engage in that conversation. I would hope that the Israelis would be as well, but it’s up to them to make that decision.”
When asked to clarify if there could be no normal ties without a path to a credible and irreversible Palestinian state, Prince Faisal said: “That’s the only way we’re going to get a benefit. So, yes.”
The interview was recorded at last week’s World Economic Forum held in Davos.
Hamas attacked Israeli communities on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 240.
Retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza and a ground offensive there have killed more than 25,000 people and displaced most of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million.
“What we are seeing is the Israelis are crushing Gaza, the civilian population of Gaza,” Prince Faisal said. “This is completely unnecessary, completely unacceptable and has to stop.”
Asked if Saudi Arabia would be willing to finance postwar reconstruction in Gaza, Prince Faisal said this depended on the prospects for lasting peace.
“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,” he said.
“But if we are just resetting to the status quo before October 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.”
The Palestinians seek a state that would include Gaza, the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem, territories that were captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.