Saudi prince unloads on Israel, Ashkenazi at Bahrain summit

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki al-Faisal unleashes a blistering attack on Israel at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, catching Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi off-guard, particularly as Israelis receive warm welcomes from officials in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates following agreements to normalize ties.

Israel has “incarcerated [Palestinians] in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations — young and old, women and men, who are rotting there without recourse to justice,” Prince Turki says. “They are demolishing homes as they wish and they assassinate whomever they want.”

The prince also criticizes Israel’s reported undeclared arsenal of nuclear weapons, and Israeli governments “unleashing their political minions and their media outlets from other countries to denigrate and demonize Saudi Arabia.”

The prince reiterates the kingdom’s official position that the solution lies in implementing the Arab Peace Initiative, a 2002 Saudi-sponsored deal that offers Israel full ties with all Arab states in return for Palestinian statehood on territory Israel captured in 1967.

“You cannot treat an open wound with palliatives and painkillers,” he adds.

Ashkenazi says he “regrets” the comments.

“I don’t believe that they reflect the spirit and the changes taking place in the Middle East,” he says.

— AP