Saudi crown prince says Riyadh won’t recognize Israel without Palestinian state
Mohammed bin Salman says kingdom will continue ‘its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital’
DUBAI — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Wednesday the kingdom would not recognize Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“We renew the kingdom’s rejection and strong condemnation of the crimes of the Israeli occupation authority against the Palestinian people,” the crown prince, known as MBS, said.
He added that “the kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”
Such a move is considered a key sticking point with the current right-wing Israeli government, which has repeatedly rejected the possibility of a Palestinian state, especially in the wake of the October 7 attack, saying that doing so would be tantamount to rewarding terrorism.
After the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war following the terror group’s deadly October 7 onslaught, Saudi Arabia largely put on ice US-backed plans for the kingdom to normalize ties with Israel, two sources familiar with Riyadh’s thinking said earlier this year.
But Saudi officials have continued to publicly and privately say since the start of the war that a normalization deal with Israel is still on its diplomatic agenda, while publicly pushing for a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
MBS, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, said just weeks before the fighting broke out that Riyadh was getting closer to a deal, but talks were essentially frozen in the first months of the war.
The two sources told Reuters earlier this year that there would be some delay in the US-backed talks on normalization of Saudi-Israel ties, which is seen as a key step for the kingdom to secure what it considers the real prize of a US defense pact in exchange.
MBS made the remarks Wednesday at an annual speech to the advisory Shura Council, which he gave on behalf of his father, King Salman. The council swore an oath of office before MBS on Wednesday before he addressed it.
