The Saudi Foreign Minister on Friday expressed the willingness of the country to normalize ties with Israel and emphasized its benefit for his state. However, the normalization depends on the Israel-Palestine peace process, said FM.
Former US President Donald Trump last year brokered Abraham Accords, under which four countries -the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan – agreed to normalize ties with the Jewish state.
But Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that any deal with Saudi Arabia was “very much dependent on progress with the peace process”.
“I think normalizing Israel’s status within the region would bring tremendous benefit to the region as a whole,” he said during an interview with CNN.
“It would be extremely helpful both economically but also socially and from a security perspective.”
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly affirmed its decades-old policy of not establishing formal ties with Israel until a deal is reached to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians.
But mutual concern over Iran has gradually brought Israel and Gulf countries closer, and Riyadh has quietly been building relations with the Jewish state for several years.
