Palestinian State Should Have East Jerusalem As Its Capital -Saudi Arabia

In an interview with the Al-Hadath news channel on Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud disclosed that the creation of a Palestinian state is the Kingdom’s precondition for the normalisation of ties with Israel. Palestinian state should have East Jerusalem as its capital, Bin Farhan added.

Saudi Arabia has previously made similar comments, saying it would only normalise ties with Israel within a plan that would deliver a sovereign state to Palestinians. In October, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said that the Kingdom remained open to fully normalize ties with Israel on the condition of a Palestinian State and a peace plan between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

In the US-brokered event in September 2020, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed agreements (Abraham Accords) with United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain have signed agreements to normalise relations with Israel in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran. The deals make them the third and fourth Arab states to take such steps to normalise ties since Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed Ben Salman (MBS) apparently did not reject a proposal to normalize ties with Israel but listed the steps needed to make the move, according to report. These include an improvement in relations between Washington and Riyadh. Unlike Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which host Israeli entrepreneurs, and Manama, which has relations with Tel Aviv through its Jewish community and its associations promoting interreligious dialogue, Saudi Arabia has for a long time remained reluctant to show any sign of detente with Israel. It seems that the situation is gradually changing under the impetus of MBS, who wishes to project the image of economic, political and cultural openness of his country and consolidate his relationship with Washington.

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Analyst says Palestinians were not part of the Abraham Accords, which were deliberately formulated to work around them. Prior to the accords, the common Mideast wisdom contended that further normalization of relations between Israel and Arab states (beyond Egypt and Jordan) must be preceded by an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. This was the formula enshrined in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, promoted by Saudi Arabia.

In the 1967 war, Israel captured east Jerusalem along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. While the Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state and consider east Jerusalem their capital. Israel annexed east Jerusalem shortly after the 1967 war and considers the entire city to be its capital, a claim not recognized by most of the international community.