Saudi Arabia Insists on establishing Palestinian State Before Normalization with Israel
The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, reaffirmed his country’s stance towards peace with Israel, indicating that this will not be achieved until after the implementation of the terms of the Arab Peace Initiative and establishing the Palestinian state.
Bin Farhan said in an interview with the Saudi Arabia channel about the date of signing an agreement to normalize relations with Israel: “This date depends on achieving peace and achieving the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, according to the Arab Peace Initiative.”
The Saudi Foreign Minister commented that a number of Arab countries have reached agreements to fully normalize relations with Israel, saying, “We hope that it will have a positive effect, and this is a sovereign decision in the end for those countries.”
Bin Farhan added, “We hope that it will have a primarily positive impact on the peace process and on achieving what we all aim at, which is the realization of the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, according to the principles agreed upon by all.”
Furthermore, the Saudi Foreign Minister expressed his hope that these agreements would prompt Israel to engage in a serious dialogue with the Palestinians to reach a comprehensive and complete agreement on the issue, stressing that the countries that reached a normalization agreement with Israel are keen on establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
It is noteworthy that the reaffirmation of the Saudi position comes a few days after the inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States of America to succeed Donald Trump, who promoted and pushed for the conclusion of agreements to normalize relations between a number of Arab countries and Israel.
