Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan took part in a virtual appearance yesterday with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and discussed a range of regional and global issues following the inaugural U.S-Saudi Strategic Dialogue meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The foreign minister discussed the ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to convince Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel, noting the main focus of Middle East peace efforts should be to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, a comment suggesting that Israeli-Saudi normalization is unlikely any time soon.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan yesterday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“I believe that the focus now needs to be on getting the Palestinians and the Israelis back to the negotiating table. In the end, the only thing that can deliver lasting peace and lasting stability is an agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Al-Farhan said.
The foreign minister also signaled progress may be underway toward resolving the three-year-old rift with its neighbor Qatar.
“We hope … that we are able to find a path forward to address the legitimate security concerns … that drove us to take the decisions we took,” he said, in referencing the Kingdom’s decision to cut off ties with Qatar.
“I think there is a path towards that and we are hoping that we can find that in the relatively near future,” according to Reuters.
Asked when that might happen, he replied: “Your guess is as good as mine.”
[Click here to watch the video interview from the Washington Institute]
