In a rare reference to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman rebuked Israel for what he described as “genocide” committed by the Israeli military against Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking during the summit of leaders of Muslim and Arab countries in Riyadh on Monday, bin Salman said that “the Kingdom renews its condemnation and categorical rejection of the genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people.”
He also urged the international community to stop Israel from attacking Iran and to respect Iran’s sovereignty. Back in September, the crown prince also said that the kingdom would not recognize Israel unless a Palestinian state were created.
US President Joe Biden’s administration had sought to broker a normalization accord between Saudi Arabia and Israel that would have included US security guarantees for the kingdom.
However, normalization efforts were put on ice after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza and Israel’s subsequent retaliation. And latest remarks by top Saudi officials now show that the idea of a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal is still out of the question.
MBS echoed his Foreign Minister’s stance
Late in October, the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud called for an immediate ceasefire during a ‘Global Alliance’ meeting that was held in Riyadh in a push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Soon after attending the summit, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit spoke to the media and said the freezing of Israel’s UN membership might happen soon in response to Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.
“I trust that a lot of states will support freezing the membership. This freezing is not under the U.N. Security Council’s vision, meaning the UNSC is the only party concerned with expelling and joining members but we are not speaking about expelling or joining, we are talking about freezing. Accordingly, we might witness soon the freezing of the membership through a UNGA majority vote. Accordingly, it is a step that puts things in the right place,” Aboul Gheit said.
“To be quite honest, the two-state solution was dying a slow death and with the conflict in Gaza and the activities of Israel in the West Bank that death was accelerating,” he further noted.
