Saudi Arabia is ready to establish relations with Israel in full, subject to the conclusion of a Palestinian-Israeli peace treaty. This was announced on Saturday, November 21, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
“We support full normalization with Israel, but first there must be a permanent peace agreement that guarantees the Palestinians a state,” the foreign minister said in an interview with Reuters.
In mid-October, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, after talks with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister as part of the first round of bilateral strategic dialogue, expressed hope that Riyadh would consider the possibility of joining the so-called Abrahamic Accords on normalizing relations with Israel.
On October 23, Israel agreed to normalize relations with Sudan. Earlier in the month, Israel’s Knesset approved an agreement to normalize relations between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The agreements on the normalization of relations were signed on September 15 at the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdel Latif al-Zayani. The event was held at the White House in the presence of US President Donald Trump, his wife Melania and invited guests.
One of the clauses of the “Abrahamic Accords” implies Israel’s suspension of the extension of its sovereignty to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. This condition is spelled out in Washington’s plan for the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The signing of the agreements was condemned in Palestine. There they recalled their ambassador to the UAE and called the actions of Abu Dhabi aggression against its people and disregard for their rights and shrines.