Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly said that he fears of assassination if he agrees with normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
According to a newly published report by Politico, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said during a private meeting with US lawmakers early this month that he is afraid of a destiny like Egypt’s president Anwar Sadat if he agrees to normalize relations with Israel.
Citing three people briefed on the meeting, the report said that “the crown prince indicated he still intends to move ahead with forging ties with the Jewish state, though he fears it could cost him his life.”
Referring to the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who was shot dead in 1981, two years after he signed a peace agreement with Israel, bin Salman asked US lawmakers what the US had done to protect Sadat after the landmark peace deal.
“Saudis care very deeply about a Palestinian state, and the street throughout the Middle East cares deeply about this, and my tenure as the keeper of the holy sites of Islam will not be secure if I don’t address a true path to a Palestinian state,” bin Salman said in the meeting, adding that “I will resign from my role as the guardian of Islam if I do not resolve what I called the most urgent justice issue facing the area (a state for Palestine).”
Is securing a state for Palestine what MBS really wants?
Nahal Toosi, Politico’s senior foreign affairs correspondent said regarding the new report that the crown prince was “saying his life is in danger to push US officials to raise pressure on Israel to bend to a deal he likes.”
Sources in US Congress, however, have said that the possibility of forging an Israel-Saudi normalization deal before November’s presidential election has been all but shut, with no time for the Senate to ratify the US-Saudi component of the deal before its recess.
Although the recent escalation in Gaza has significantly impacted the normalization talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel, Toosi said that even before the Gaza war, MBS was “gambling by toying with the idea of establishing diplomatic ties with Israel and had the idea in mind.”
Although a normalization deal between Riyadh and Tel Aviv is also a long-coveted goal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he has repeatedly rejected a future Palestinian state as a precondition for a deal with Saudi Arabia.
But it seems bin Salman is determined to move forward with the deal, seeing it as essential for Saudi Arabia’s future. Maybe that’s why US President Joe Biden has said lately that Saudi Arabia wants to “fully recognize Israel” in exchange for security guarantees from Washington and the establishment of a civilian nuclear facility.
It was also on this past Monday that the White House confirmed it had resumed offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia after three years over human rights concerns, further empowering the idea that a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia can happen even if there is no state for Palestine.
