Saudi Arabia will not normalise ties with Israel in the absence of a two-state solution with the Palestinians, the kingdom's top diplomat has said, according to a tweet by the foreign ministry on Friday.
The comments by Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed normalisation with Saudi Arabia in talks with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Jerusalem on Thursday.
"True normalisation and true stability will only come through... giving the Palestinians a state," Prince Faisal told Bloomberg at the summit.
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is a close partner of the United States but it has repeatedly refused to normalise ties with US-ally Israel due to its occupation of Palestinian territories.
The US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020 saw the kingdom's neighbours -- the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain -- establish full diplomatic ties with Israel. Netanyahu has repeatedly expressed his desire to see Saudi Arabia join the list. In their talks on Thursday, Netanyahu and Sullivan discussed "measures to deepen the Abraham Accords... with an emphasis on a breakthrough with Saudi," the Israeli leader's office said.
The West Bank and the Gaza Strip plus Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem were long touted as the basis of a Palestinian state in a "two-state" solution to the long-running conflict.
But that goal has become ever more distant, with the occupied West Bank fragmented by Jewish settlements.
Netanyahu plans to pursue a policy of increased settlement expansion in the West Bank, with ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties in his coalition advocating the annexation of some of the territory. Palestinian president urges US intervention to stop Israel's "extremist measures" Xinhua adds from Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday called on the U.S. government to intervene to stop the Israeli new government's measures against the Palestinians before it is too late. Abbas made the remarks during a meeting held at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. While calling on the U.S. to intervene to stop what he termed as "the Israeli government's extremist measures," Abbas accused Israel of destroying the remaining chances for peace and stability in the region, according to WAFA.
Abbas briefed Sullivan "about the destructive measures and crimes that the new Israeli government is taking with the aim of destroying the two-state solution and the signed peace agreements," according to the report.
The Palestinian leader said the U.S. should stop Israel's unilateral measures and violations, including the expansion of settlements, killings, storming of Palestinian cities and towns, and deducting Palestinian tax dues. "The Palestinian leadership will not accept the continuation of these Israeli crimes and will confront them and defend the rights, land, and sanctities of the Palestinian people," Abbas told Sullivan. Abbas stressed the importance of the U.S. fulfilling its commitments to preserve the two-state solution, stop settlement activity, and maintain the legal and historical status quo in Jerusalem.
He also called on Washington to reopen the U.S. consulate office in Jerusalem and reopen the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, which was closed during former U.S. President Donald Trump's tenure.
Since early January, the tension between Israel and the Palestinians has been rising. Around 17 Palestinians have been killed, and dozens of others were injured by Israeli soldiers since the start of the year, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Palestinian officials have warned against the Israeli escalation against the Palestinians, particularly after the formation of the new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is the most rightist in Israel's history.
