Countering Trump, Saudi Arabia says no Israel normalization without Palestinian state
In 4 a.m. statement, Riyadh says its ‘unwavering’ stance had been relayed to admin; PA envoy rejects Trump’s call to permanent relocate Gazans: ‘Our homeland is our homeland’

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia reiterated its stance against normalizing relations with Israel before a two-state solution has been reached, after US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Riyadh has not made the establishment of a Palestinian state a condition for a peace deal with Israel.
A statement from Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said the kingdom’s stance in favor of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital is “firm and unwavering.”
The statement was issued after 4 a.m. in Riyadh, demonstrating the urgency with which the kingdom felt in responding to Trump.
It noted that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated as much in a speech last September, when he said Riyadh would not establish ties with Israel without this main condition met.
The statement carefully did not mention Trump by name, as Saudi Arabia and other countries around the world try to avoid crossing the US president at the start of his second term.
However, Saudi Arabia did stress that it had already conveyed its position against normalizing ties with Israel before a Palestinian state is established “to the previous US administration and the current administration.”
Non-Saudi officials and analysts alike, though, have long dismissed such statements from the kingdom, insisting that bin Salman is far more flexible on the issue in private and is only seeking the establishment of a “pathway” to Palestinian statehood before normalizing ties with Israel.
Still, those same officials and analysts acknowledge that Saudi Arabia has been seeking a much more irreversible pathway amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has catapulted the Palestinian issue to the top of the international agenda.

Trump’s assertion that Riyadh is not demanding a Palestinian state as a precondition for establishing diplomatic relations with Jerusalem came as he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who during a joint press conference said he believes that “peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia is not only feasible; it’s going to happen.”
If Trump had another half-year of his first term it would already have happened, said the premier, whose right-wing government is opposed to a Palestinian state.
“I’m committed to achieving it. And I know the president is committed to achieving it. And I think the Saudi leadership is interested in achieving it.”
“We’ll give it a good shot,” Netanyahu said, “and I think we’ll succeed.”
Trump’s first administration brokered Israel’s establishment of ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. That raised hopes of a similar deal with Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s richest economy and guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.
Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel, but since 2020 has been negotiating rapprochement in exchange for a US defense pact and Washington’s help on a civilian nuclear program.
Those talks were derailed by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, with Riyadh shelving the matter amid Arab anger over Israel’s subsequent military offensive in the enclave.
‘Our homeland is our homeland’
Also Tuesday, the UN envoy for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority said world leaders and people should respect Palestinians’ desire to remain in the Gaza Strip, after Trump said that he believed people from the territory — which he suggested the US take over — should be resettled elsewhere “permanently.”
“Our homeland is our homeland, if part of it is destroyed, the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian people selected the choice to return to it,” said Riyad Mansour. “And I think that leaders and people should respect the wishes of the Palestinian people.”
At the United Nations, Mansour did not name Trump but appeared to reject the US president’s proposal.
“Our country and our home is” the Gaza Strip, “it’s part of Palestine,” he said. “We have no home. For those who want to send them to a happy, nice place, let them go back to their original homes inside Israel, there are nice places there, and they will be happy to return to these places.”

Gaza-ruling Hamas also condemned Trump’s calls for Gazans to leave as “expulsion from their land.”
“We consider them a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass,” senior Hamas member Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.