Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Saudi Arabia “has enough land to establish a state for the Palestinians.”
Netanyahu explained in an interview with Channel 14: “The Saudis can establish a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia, they have a lot of land there.”
When asked about a Palestinian state as a condition for normalization, he added that he will not reach any agreement that would endanger the state of Israel.
Former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister, Ambassador Rakha Ahmed Hassan, confirmed that Saudi Arabia has issued statements more than once confirming that there will be no normalization with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
He added that pressure from the US, alongside Netanyahu’s statements are attempts to strong-arm Saudi Arabia, especially before the tour that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will conduct in the region.
Hassan pointed out that Rubio’s tour is expected to explore the prospects of Trump’s proposal to rebuild Gaza and deport Palestinians from it.
It also seeks to resume the Abraham Accords process related to the normalization of Arab countries with Israel, especially Saudi Arabia’s normalization with Tel Aviv.
He stressed that the matter requires an urgent and unified Arab position against this colonial policy, and warned that that Donald Trump’s proposed Gaza plan would be a war crime according to international law.
