Ex-Saudi intel chief to ToI: Riyadh will consider normalization when Israel acts normally |
Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, told The Times of Israel on Sunday that Riyadh is currently not even entertaining the idea of normalizing relations with Israel and will only do so if Jerusalem begins acting like a “normal country.”
“Saudi Arabia is not considering a normalization deal with Israel. Should Israel become a normal country with normal acceptance of international law, then Saudi Arabia will consider normalization,” he said in an interview.
While Prince Turki made the comments in a highly rare engagement with Israeli media, the content of his remarks was another demonstration of just how far the world’s leading Arab and Muslim nation appears to be from forging ties with Israel, despite Washington’s strong desire to see it happen.
Prince Turki is known for adopting a harsher tone against Israel than that of his government in recent years, but his positions have been reflective of Riyadh’s official stance on potential ties with the Jewish state.
He served as director general of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Directorate from 1979 to 2001 before shorter stints as the Gulf kingdom’s ambassador to the UK and the US. He has continued weighing in on international affairs since his retirement from public life, and he currently serves as the chairman of the King Faisal Foundation’s Center for Research and Islamic Studies.
Although Saudi officials generally hold a no-contact policy with Israeli media, Prince Turki agreed to answer a series of questions regarding the prospects of a potential normalization agreement between Riyadh and Jerusalem.
Asked to clarify Riyadh’s specific conditions for establishing ties with Israel, given that some Saudi officials have spoken of the need for a Palestinian state to be established while others have insisted upon only a “pathway” to a two-state solution, Prince Turki said there’s “no discrepancy.”
“Realizing the two-state solution requires a serious and trusted pathway that leads to the end goal, which is a viable Palestinian state as envisioned by the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 and the vision of peace presented for a final settlement of this protracted conflict in that initiative,” he said, referencing the Saudi-backed proposal for a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders along with a “just and agreed” solution to the Palestinian refugee issue — terms successive Israeli governments have rejected.
“Normalizing ties with Israel was conditioned by reaching that final and fair solution to the Palestinian cause. Therefore, Saudi statements on a ‘pathway’ mean the need for a reliable peaceful process that leads to [that] final solution, with the understanding that such a process requires involvement of many international and regional countries, including Saudi Arabia, to engage........