Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman smiles during the New Global Financial Pact Summit at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, on June 22, 2023.
Ludovic Marin | AFP | Getty Images
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the prospect of normalizing relations with Israel is getting closer by the day, but signaled that the treatment of Palestinians remains a clinching point.
Prince Mohammed dismissed reports that the two countries had suspended talks and acknowledged progress in negotiations.
“Every day we get closer,” he said in an Fox News interview aired on Wednesday — a rare sit-down with a Western media outlet for the Saudi crown prince.
“There is support from [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden’s administration to get to that point,” he added, but stressed that the welfare of Palestinians remains a bone of contention. “For us, the Palestinian issue is very important, we need to solve that part … We hope that it will reach a place that it will ease the life of the Palestinians and get Israel as a player in the Middle East.”
A historical supporter of Palestinian interests, Riyadh has not formally recognized Israel since the latter declared independence in 1948. Israel has in recent years made significant breakthroughs in rekindling ties with other Arab states that previously also spurned it over its treatment of Palestinians. In September 2020, the landmark Abraham Accords brokered by the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump reconnected Israel with close Saudi allies Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Sudan and Morocco have also recognized Israel in the years since.
Israeli efforts and the Palestinian cause
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly courted reconciliation with Riyadh, dubbing it a “huge quantum leap for peace.” Washington has likewise persistently courted a formal normalization of diplomatic relations between its two top Middle Eastern allies.
On Wednesday, Biden met with Netanyahu on the sidelines of a meeting of the United Nations in New York, in their first encounter since the Israeli prime minister’s return to power in his sixth term. The two leaders agreed to work toward securing diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
“I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” Netanyahu said, according to a White House readout. “And I think such a peace would go a long way, first, to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state, and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This is something within our reach.”
Saudi Arabia is home to Islam’s holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, giving it a crucial role in the Muslim world where Palestinian statehood is deeply cared about. Israel’s current government led by Netanyahu has no intention of giving major concessions to the Palestinians; Netanyahu in early August told Bloomberg TV that any minor gestures on his part toward Palestinians would essentially be “just a box you have to check to say that you’re doing it.”
The United Nations classifies Israel as an occupier state over the Palestinian territories, whose occupations and annexations following the 1967 Six-Day War remain in violation of international law.
Whether or not Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman feels a personal conviction to keep making demands of Israel on behalf of the Palestinians, the perception of his efforts in the Arab world are important for his leadership, many regional analysts say.
Riyadh has so far maintained diplomatic distance from Israel, despite historically sharing deeply ingrained security concerns over Iran’s nuclear advances and military funding in the Middle East. In a blow to Washington, Saudi Arabia resumed ties with Iran earlier this year in a China-mediated agreement and was in August invited alongside Tehran and four other nations to join the Beijing and Russia-backed BRICS economic alliance of emerging markets. Riyadh remains wary of Iran’s potential capabilities to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“If they get one, we have to get one,” Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News. “Even if Iran get a nuclear weapon, any country getting a nuclear weapon, that means they are having a war with the rest of the world. The world cannot see another Hiroshima. If the world see 100,000 people dead, that means you are in a war with the rest of the world.”