Cairo, Feb 5 (EFE).- Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state after US President Donald Trump said he would “take over” the Gaza Strip.
“Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state (…) and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the ministry said in a statement posted on X.
Saudi Arabia “also reaffirms it unequivocal rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, land annexation, or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land,” it added.
During a joint conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Trump, who is seeking to reestablish relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, said that he would relocate Palestinians to other countries.
The Saudi foreign ministry stressed that its position was “non-negotiable” and that achieving “lasting and just peace” was “impossible without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights in accordance with international resolutions, as has been previously clarified to both the former and current US administrations.”
This is the first time that Trump, who campaigned on a promise to get the US out of wars in the Middle East, has spoken of a direct long-term involvement in Gaza and also the first time he has suggested that Palestinians should be permanently expelled to other countries, trying to frame it as a humanitarian measure, saying it was impossible to believe that anyone would want to remain in a war-ravaged territory, which he called a “demolition site.”
For his part, Netanyahu, who considered that the two leaders would “forge a new future” for the region, said that peace with Saudi Arabia was feasible and possible with Trump’s help.
“I think that peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia is not only feasible. I think it will happen,” Netanyahu said at the press conference at the White House.
One of Trump’s major goals during his second term is to achieve an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia for the restoration of diplomatic relations.
Palestinians claim that the Gaza Strip as part of a future state along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem, so the displacement of the 2 million people living in the enclave and its real estate development by the US would put an end to the concept of a Palestinian state. EFE
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