The crown prince and de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salmanruled out on Wednesday the normalization of relations with Israel without the prior creation of a Palestinian state.
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“The kingdom will not cease its tireless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital (…), without which it will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel,” he declared before the Government Advisory Board.
Bin Salman also condemned “the crimes of the Israeli occupation authority against the Palestinian people.”
Saudi Arabia, home to two of Islam’s holiest sites, has never recognized Israel and did not join the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020, under which its neighbors Bahrain and United Arab Emirates established formal ties with the Israeli state.
Crimes of the Israeli occupation authority against the Palestinian people
The US administration has repeatedly expressed its hope of reaching a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabiawhich could change the situation in the region.
In September, before the Hamas attack in southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, the Saudi crown prince indicated that he was “every day closer” of an agreement that was also intended to strengthen security cooperation between Washington and Riyadh.
But Bin Salman, of 39 years oldHe also stressed the importance of the Palestinian issue. “We must make life easier for the Palestinians,” he said.
In Gaza, fighting has continued since the war broke out on October 7th and the mediators —United States, Qatar and Egypt— are struggling to achieve a truce, with Saudi officials insisting more than ever on the need to create a Palestinian State.
Islamic countries seek to exert pressure to activate recognition of the State of Palestine
The Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee discussed on Wednesday in Amman the ways to put pressure on the meetings of the UN General Assembly with the aim of achieving “activating the recognition of the Palestinian State” and achieving the stability, security and peace in the region.
“The ministers discussed ways to intensify the Arab and Islamic movement during the meetings of the General Assembly “in a way that supports efforts to activate the recognition of the Palestinian State, ensures that the rights of the Palestinian people are fulfilled and serves security and peace in the region and the world,” he said. Committee in a statement.
At the coordination meeting, chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, The heads of diplomacy of Jordan, Palestine, Bahrain, Türkiye, Qatarand the Deputy Foreign Minister of Egypt, as well as the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Abulgueit, and the Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hussein Ibrahim Taha.
During the meeting, they discussed joint efforts to take the necessary steps to implement the two-state solution (one Palestinian and one Israeli) “through the establishment of the Palestinian State within the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in light of the Initiative of Arab Peace and relevant international initiatives.”
This ministerial meeting is intended to coordinate the joint action of Arab and Islamic countries during the preparation of the high-level week of the seventy-ninth session of the United Nations General Assemblywhich will be held in New York this month and will be attended by the King of Jordan, Abdullah II.
The agenda focused especially on how to stop the war in the Gaza Strip and the dangerous escalation in the Occupied West Bankas well as ending the humanitarian catastrophe and ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid to all affected areas of the occupied Palestinian territories.
The meeting takes place as the total number of deaths in the Gaza Strip exceeds 41.272most of them women and children, while the number of injured exceeds 95,550 After more than eleven months of Israeli offensive, while tensions in the region grow with the explosion of thousands of pager in Lebanon attributed to Israel.
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