Saudi foreign minister calls for ceasefire with normalisation with Israel as bait

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and confirmed the Kingdom’s interest in a potential normalisation agreement with Israel. Prince Faisal Bin Farhan made his comment at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, where political figures and business executives from around the world meet to discuss current and future events.

“Peace and security for Israel is intimately linked with Palestinians’ peace and security,” said Bin Farhan. “We are fully on board with that.”

He highlighted the ongoing efforts, in cooperation with the US administration, for regional peace through the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“We agree that regional peace includes peace for Israel, but that could only happen through peace for the Palestinians through a Palestinian state. This is something we have indeed been working on with the US administration, and it is more relevant in the context of Gaza.”

However, the top Saudi diplomat warned that Israel’s current offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip jeopardises the prospects for regional peace and security. “What Israel is doing now is putting the prospects for regional peace and security at risk.”

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There must be a ceasefire on all sides, said Bin Farhan. “That should be a starting point for peace.” Asked if Saudi Arabia would then recognise Israel as part of a wider political agreement, he replied, “Certainly.”

Prior to the 7 October attack, Washington had been brokering talks between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, in what would have supposedly been the biggest diplomatic breakthrough in the region as Saudi Arabia is perceived as the most influential country in the Gulf and the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Israel has engaged in a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip since 7 October, killing at least 24,100 people and injuring 60,834 others. Haaretz has revealed that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian resistance fighters in the October armed incursion.

The offensive in Gaza has left 85 per cent of the population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine. Around 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.