'Won't Recognise Israel Without a Path to a Palestinian State': Saudi Arabia's Top Diplomat

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said there can be no normalisation of ties with Israel without resolving the Palestinian issue, he said in an interview that aired on Sunday.

Asked if there could be no normal ties without a path to a credible and irreversible Palestinian state, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria: “That’s the only way we’re going to get the benefit. So, yes, because we need stability and only stability will come through the resolving the Palestinian issue.”

The foreign minister’s remarks were part of an interview originally taped on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum held last week in Davos, Switzerland, and aired Sunday on CNN. De-escalation of the conflict in Gaza and halting civilian deaths is a key focus of Saudi Arabia, the minister said.

“What we are seeing is the Israelis are crushing Gaza, the civilian population of Gaza,” he said. “This is completely unnecessary, completely unacceptable and has to stop.” The local health ministry in Gaza says more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 62,000 wounded in Israel’s assault on the region since an Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group.

Earlier in the interview, when asked if the oil-rich country would finance reconstruction in Gaza — where Israel’s air and ground offensive has devastated the impoverished territory, Prince Faisal said,” “As long as we’re able to find a pathway to a solution, a resolution, a pathway that means that we’re not going to be here again in a year or two, then we can talk about anything.”

“But if we are just resetting to the status quo before October 7, in a way that sets us up for another round of this, as we have seen in the past, we’re not interested in that conversation,” he added. The Palestinians seek a state that would include Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel views all of Jerusalem as its capital and the West Bank as the historical and biblical heartland of the Jewish people.

(With agency inputs)