Saudi Arabia: No normalisation with Israel without Palestinian state

There won’t be any normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia without a plan that will see the Palestinians getting their own state, the Kingdom’s Foreign Minister said.

“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,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told CNN.

The foreign minister also Israel of “crushing Gaza, the civilian population of Gaza. This is completely unnecessary, completely unacceptable and has to stop.”

His comments came after Financial Times reported that Arab states are working on an initiative to that would end the war in Gaza and free hostages. In return, Saudi Arabia would normalise ties with Israel if it agrees to “irreversible steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later dismissed the idea of a Palestinian state, stressing that Israel will need to have military control with all territories West of Jordan in any future arrangement with the Palestinians.

“For 30 years, I have been very consistent, and I’m saying something very simple. This conflict is not about the lack of a state, a Palestinian state, but about the existence of a state, a Jewish state,” Netanyahu told reporters last week.

“Every area that we evacuate, we experience terrible terror against us. It happened in South Lebanon, in Gaza, and also in Judea and Samaria. Therefore, I clarify that in any arrangement, in the future, with agreement, without agreement, the State of Israel must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River,” he added.

Following Netanyahu’s rejection of a Palestinian state, the U.S. and EU reiterated that a two-state solution is the only way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to recent polls, only 25% of Israelis support a two-state solution while 65% oppose it.

The numbers are almost identical among Palestinians: 24% support a two-state solution, down from 59% in 2012.