Blinken in Saudi Arabia: Mideast ‘Normalization’ with Israel Will Require a Palestinian State

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Saudi Arabia on Monday that the leadership of that country, and other Arab neighbors of Israel, had an “interest” in normalizing ties but would not pursue that avenue without the creation of a “Palestinian state.”

“With regard to integration, to normalization, yes, we talked about that actually on every stop, including of course here in Saudi Arabia,” Blinken said. “And I can tell you this: There’s a clear interest here in pursuing that; there’s a clear interest in the region in pursuing that. But it will require that the conflict end in Gaza, and it will also clearly require that there be a practical pathway to a Palestinian state.”

“This is what I heard from everyone we talked to about it. But this interest is there, it’s real, and it could be transformative,” he added.

Blinken is currently on a tour of the Middle East including stops in Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (IAE), and Israel, including Saudi Arabia. Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders on Tuesday. Prior to his arrival there, however, he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday in a luxury tent in the “historic oasis” of AlUla to discuss Israel’s ongoing self-defense operations against the Sunni terrorist organization Hamas and related issues, such as the ongoing threat of attacks by the Shiite Houthi terrorist organization on international shipping in the Red Sea.

HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with #US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken in #AlUla. pic.twitter.com/5pnLG5BDSe

— Foreign Ministry 🇸 (@KSAmofaEN) January 8, 2024

An official readout of the meeting from the State Department claimed that Blinken “emphasized … the establishment of an independent Palestinian state” in talks with the Crown Prince. Mohammed bin Salman, in turn, reportedly “emphasized the crucial need to halt military operations in Gaza.”

Blinken told journalists that the leaders he met with in Israel’s Muslim neighboring governments agreed on several points, including “that Israel and Israelis should be able to live in peace and security” and that both the West Bank and Gaza “should be united under Palestinian-led governance.” The West Bank is currently controlled by the Palestinian Authority, while Gaza is under the control of Hamas.

Israel has been engaged in military operations in Gaza, the stronghold of the Hamas terror group, since October 7, when the jihadists invaded Israel and engaged in a widespread campaign of gang rape, torture, infanticide, abduction, mutilation, and mass murder against random civilians. Hamas terrorists killed an estimated 1,200 people and abducted about 250; Israel declared a formal state of war on October 8.

Blinken insisted that the parties agreed that “integration” with Israel was necessary, but not without “the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.” He did not specify which individual or group the administration of President Joe Biden had suggested should control the hypothetical “Palestinian state,” but the Palestinian Authority has floated a “unity” government with Hamas and another jihadist terror organization, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In Israel on Tuesday, Blinken similarly reiterated the Biden administration’s support for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Israeli officials, without clarifying whether or not the White House would stand against Hamas playing a role in that suggested country.

The Saudi government was widely rumored to be considering normalization with Israel in the months immediately before the October 7 atrocities. Mohammed bin Salman notably did not call for a Palestinian state in an interview shortly before in which he discussed potentially establishing diplomatic ties with Israel.

Israel’s Muslim neighboring governments have traditionally been hostile to the Jewish state, including Saudi Arabia. Under former President Donald Trump, however, some nations pursued normalization of relations – most prominently the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, which joined the “Abraham Accords” in an event at the White House in 2020 that established formal diplomatic relations between Israel and the two Arab states. Trump at the time hinted that at least five other countries sought to normalize relations with Israel in similar agreements, potentially including Saudi Arabia, but that momentum ended with the election of President Joe Biden.

Both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain condemned the Hamas attack on Israel.

“The UAE reaffirmed that the international community must remain resolute in the face of these violent attempts to derail ongoing regional efforts aimed at dialogue, cooperation, and co-existence,” a statement from the Emirati Foreign Affairs Ministry on October 8 read, “and must not allow nihilistic destruction to overtake a region whose people have already suffered enough war and trauma.”

Following the Hamas massacres, bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, emphasized Riyadh’s “commitment to supporting the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights” against Israel’s self-defense operations in Gaza and called not just for the creation of a Palestinian state but for Israel to cede East Jerusalem to be used as a “capital” for this state.

“The Kingdom’s firm and unaltered stance has always been and remains that security and stability in Palestine can be achieved only through implementing international resolutions pertaining to the two-state solution,” bin Salman said at a meeting of BRICS member countries in November, “in order to enable the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate right to establish an independent and sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

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