In an address to the Shoura Council, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that Saudi Arabia would not recognize Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In a televised speech, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman stated that:
“The kingdom will not cease its tireless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without one. We thank all the countries that recognized the Palestinian state as an embodiment of international legitimacy, and we urge other countries to take similar steps.”
Adding that, “We renew the kingdom’s rejection and strong condemnation of the crimes of the Israeli occupation authority against the Palestinian people,”
The remarks were delivered on behalf of his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
The Crown Prince’s clarification comes roughly one year after his interview with Fox News in which he commented that Saudi Arabia was “getting “closer” to normalizing with Israel, while simultaneously “working towards improving life for the Palestinians.”
Annelle Sheline, writing for Responsible Statecraft, commented that, “Although the Biden administration had previously signaled that they might be willing to move forward with [a] U.S.-Saudi defense agreement even in the absence of normalization with Israel, MBS’ announcement appears to finally kill the possibility of the so-called “Grand Bargain” that Presidential advisors Brett McGurk, Jake Sullivan, and other senior Biden officials had hoped would offer a means of countering China, resolving the Gaza crisis, and topping Trump’s Abraham Accords all in one.”
Kristian Ulrichsen, a scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy added that, “There can be no bypassing the [Palestinian] issue as arguably happened with the signatories to the Abraham Accords in 2020. The shift in the parameters of normalization will be a challenge to the next administration if the new White House simply wishes to enlarge the Abraham Accords without addressing the core underlying issues.”
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