Saudi Arabia has informed Washington that it will not establish diplomatic ties with Israel until the recognition of an independent Palestinian state. According to a statement from the Saudi foreign ministry, the kingdom’s firm position is contingent on the acknowledgment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The statement also emphasizes the necessity for an end to Israeli aggression in Gaza and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the besieged territory.
Notably, Saudi Arabia has never recognized Israel and refrained from participating in the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords, which saw neighboring Gulf countries Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, along with Morocco, formalize ties with Israel.
The recent Saudi stance comes in response to comments by White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who mentioned ongoing talks on Saudi-Israeli normalization, citing positive feedback from both sides.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Saudi Arabia involved discussions on normalization, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expressing a strong interest.
However, the Saudi position, as reiterated by Blinken, underscores the requirement for resolving the conflict in Gaza and establishing a clear, credible, time-bound path to a Palestinian state for normalization to proceed.
The Biden administration has been urging Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel, and discussions were temporarily halted after Hamas initiated an attack on southern Israel in October. Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud, previously emphasized that normalization would be impossible without an “irrevocable” pathway to the creation of a Palestinian state.
