US magazine The Atlantic reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he does not personally care about what he referred to as the “Palestinian issue”.
According to Middle East Eye, during a visit to Saudi Arabia in January, Blinken and the crown prince discussed the prospect of normalisation with Israel amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. If a normalisation deal were to occur, the crown prince expressed a desire for calm in Gaza.
According to The Atlantic, Blinken enquired whether the Saudis could tolerate Israel periodically reentering the territory to strike the besieged Gaza Strip.
“They can come back in six months, a year, but not on the back end of my signing something like this,” Mohammed bin Salman responded.
“Seventy percent of my population is younger than me,” the Saudi crown prince explained to Blinken. “For most of them, they never really knew much about the Palestinian issue. And so, they’re being introduced to it for the first time through this conflict. It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful.”
A Saudi official described this account of the conversation as “incorrect”.
In public, at least, Mohammed bin Salman has stated that Saudi Arabia will not normalise relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“The Kingdom will not cease its diligent efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he said at a recent annual address before the Shura Council in Riyadh.
“We confirm that Saudi Arabia will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until that goal is achieved.”
