Saudi Arabia says it will not follow the United Arab Emirates in establishing diplomatic ties with Israel until it has signed an internationally recognized peace agreement with the Palestinians.
The UAE last week became the first Gulf state to normalize relations with Israel, in an agreement with US presidents that increased the prospect of similar deals with other Arab states – including Saudi Arabia.
But after days of striking silence and in the face of pressure from the US to announce a similar deal, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan ruled out the possibility until the Palestinian problem is resolved.
“Peace must be achieved with the Palestinians” on the basis of international agreements as a condition for any normalization of relations, Prince Faisal told reporters during a visit to Berlin on Wednesday.
“Once this is achieved, all things are possible,” he added, in a statement that was consistent with Saudi Arabia’s previous stance on the issue.
US President Donald Trump said he expected Saudi Arabia to join the agreement announced last week by Israel and the UAE to normalize diplomatic ties and forge a broad new relationship.
“I do,” Trump replied Wednesday when asked at a White House news conference if he expected Saudi Arabia to participate.
Under the agreement, which Trump helped with brokering, Israel agreed to suspend its planned annexation of occupied West Bank territories. The agreement also supports opposition to regional power Iran, which the UAE, Israel and the US consider the main threat in the Middle East.
‘Detrimental’
Prince Faisal said the kingdom continued to commit to peace with Israel under a 2002 Arab peace initiative.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas [John Macdougall/AFP]
He reiterated criticism of Israel’s “unilateral policy” of annexation and the construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank as “illegitimate” and “harmful” for a two-state solution. But he also expressed cautious optimism about last week’s deal.
“Any effort that results in keeping the threat of annexation at bay could be seen as positive,” he said.
Saudi Arabia, which does not recognize Israel, took the 2002 initiative to offer Arab nations normalization of ties with Israel in exchange for a government with the Palestinians and complete Israeli withdrawal from territory that was conquered in 1967.
F-35 fighter jets for sale
Earlier at the news conference, Trump called on the UAE-Israel to reach a good agreement, saying, “Countries that you would not even believe want to get into that deal.” He did not name any other countries besides Saudi Arabia.
Trump also said the UAE was interested in buying F-35 fighter jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp., which Israel has used in the fight.
“They have the money and they would like to order a lot of F-35s,” Trump said, adding that the potential sale was “under review.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing a need to maintain Israeli military superiority in the region, said on Tuesday that his country would oppose any F-35 sales to the UAE.
A sale that could diminish Israel’s military advantage in the Middle East would come after Israel and the UAE said last week that they would normalize diplomatic ties.
Any F-35 sale could take years to negotiate and deliver, giving a new U.S. presidency enough time to stop the deal. Any sale would also require congressional approval.
A sector in the sector told the Reuters news agency that the prospective fighter jet sale was arranged with the help of senior adviser and sister-in-law Jared Kushner.
The US guarantees that Israel gets more advanced American weapons than Arab states, and gives it what is called a “Qualitative military edge” over its neighbors.
‘Revised’
Kushner acknowledged that it would be in Riyadh’s interest to formally establish ties with Israel.
Further putting the kingdom in the spotlight, Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel was working to open a corridor across Saudi Arabia for flights to the UAE.
Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy and home to the holiest sites of Islam, faces more sensitive political calculations than the UAE.
Not only would a formal recognition of Israel by Palestinians and their adherents be seen as a betrayal of their cause, it would also tarnish the image of the kingdom as leader of the Islamic world.
“The notion that Saudi Arabia will next normalize relations with Israel was far-fetched,” said Aziz Alghashian, a lecturer at Essex University who specializes in the kingdom’s policies regarding Israel.
“The biggest constraint on Saudi-Israeli normalization is not the fear of an internal and regional backwardness. Saver Saudi Arabia considers it necessary not to normalize relations outside the framework of the Arab peace initiative that sought to resolve the Palestinian issue. , if it still wants to be seen as the leader of the Muslim and Arab world, “Alghashian said.
.
