US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on Friday night to discuss the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
A statement from the U.S. State Department said the two leaders agreed that Blinken's “future visit to the region and his commitment to establishing a more integrated and peaceful region, including lasting security for both Israelis and Palestinians,” We discussed continued efforts.”
“The Secretary reiterated the importance of ensuring a humanitarian moratorium, including the release of hostages held by Hamas.”
The statement signaled that Saudi Arabia intends to accept a less binding political commitment from Israel to establish a Palestinian state in order to get a defense agreement approved with Washington before the US presidential election. The announcement was made immediately after the official revealed.
Why would Saudi Arabia make such a move now?
Months of US-led diplomacy to get Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel and recognize the country for the first time was shelved by Riyadh in October in the face of growing Arab anger over the Gaza war.
But Saudi Arabia is increasingly keen to strengthen its security and fend off threats from Iran so it can pursue ambitious plans to transform its economy and attract huge foreign investment. said two local sources.
In that case, Saudi Arabia would not demand that Israel take concrete steps to establish a Palestinian state, but instead would accept a political commitment to a two-state solution, two senior regional sources told Reuters. .
Although such a large-scale regional agreement was widely seen as a long-term goal even before the Israel-Hamas war, there remain many political and diplomatic obstacles, particularly uncertainty about how the Gaza conflict will unfold. will face sexuality.
Al Saud told CNN on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in January that normalization with Israel was impossible without resolving the Palestinian issue.
Still, Saudi Arabia has not been very kind to Israel in public. In the aforementioned interview, the Saudi foreign minister said: “What we are seeing is the Israelis crushing Gaza and the civilian population of Gaza. This is completely unnecessary and completely unacceptable. It cannot be done and it must be stopped.”
Saudi Arabia decides to create Palestinian state
Riyadh has been pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian state for quite some time, but the war has exacerbated problems that could have been solved with a two-state solution.
Sources said this week that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority held a secret meeting in Riyadh the week before to focus on plans to govern Gaza after the end of the civil war.
They also reportedly discussed ways in which a “new Palestinian Authority” could participate in managing the strip.
