“We are getting closer every day,” promised the Saudi crown prince this Wednesday, September 20, in front of the camera of the American channel Fox news, speaking of an agreement to “normalize” relations with Israel. “We hope that they will lead to a result which will make life easier for the Palestinians and which will allow Israel to play a role in the Middle East,” added bin Salman, known as “MBS”, during this interview conducted in Saudi Arabia.
Denying any “suspension” of discussions with Israel, the crown prince added in very relaxed English that “for us, the Palestinian question is very important. We must resolve it”, stressing that “negotiations were continuing well until here”.
Israel has already normalized relations with five Arab countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. This possible new normalization could imply security guarantees from the United States for the oil monarchy. Questioned on this subject, Mohammed bin Salman recalled that ties between Riyadh and Washington date back eight decades and that a possible security agreement with the United States would “strengthen” their military and economic cooperation, without further details.
Iran and the nuclear weapons race
News very poorly received in Iran, where President Ebrahim Raïssi warned Wednesday evening in New York that a possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia would constitute a betrayal of the Palestinian cause. “We believe that a relationship between countries in the region and the Zionist regime would be a stab in the back of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance,” declared President Raïssi during a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Asked also about the prospect of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, the crown prince, who de facto heads the Saudi kingdom, warned that Arabia would then be forced to do the same. “We are concerned that a country could acquire a nuclear weapon. It is a bad thing,” he said. “They don’t need to get a nuclear weapon because they can’t use it.” According to him, this would amount to starting “a war with the rest of the world”. But, he added, “if they get one, we should get one too.”
Joe Biden also mentioned Saudi Arabia during his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday September 20. For the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, achieving a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Israel would have a profound impact in the Middle East, a “powerful effect on the stabilization of the region, on the integration of the region, on bringing people together,” he said on the ABC channel.