Former Saudi intelligence chief to CNN: Saudi Arabia cannot normalise relations with “war criminal”

Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal has said the kingdom cannot normalise relations with a war criminal obsessed with mass killings, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an interview with CNN, he was asked about normalising ties with Israel. He replied: “How can anybody expect Saudi Arabia to normalise with such a criminal or genocidal maniac.”

Prince Turki added, “There is no way that Saudi Arabia will normalise with Israel in the present state,” noting that “the kingdom was the one who presented the Arab Peace Initiative. It is there on the table.”

He cited Saudi Arabia’s past efforts towards peace in the region, adding that normalisation cannot come before peace: “There is a long history of Saudi efforts for peace. Normalisation will not come before that. The Arab Peace Initiative is based on UN Security Council regular resolutions. International law should hold on these issues – not simply abandon and offer a price here for a murderous psychopath like Mr. Netanyahu.”

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The former Saudi official also highlighted a proposal presented by Saudi Arabia and France at the Two-State Solution conference in New York last month. It includes a plan to establish a governing authority in Gaza, allowing the Palestinian Authority to provide all government services, return to civilian life, rebuild, and give people hope for the future. 

“Just recently as I mentioned before the kingdom and France and other countries have put on the table a plan to end the fighting in Gaza and to go forward to an end to the hostilities between Israel and its neighbours,” he said.

On Netanyahu’s recent remarks about a “Greater Israel,” Prince Turki said, “Mr Netanyahu is now talking about some kind of biblical image of Israel. He is not hiding it. He is even showing it on maps. That would be from the river to the river, from the Nile to the Euphrates, which he is going to pursue.”

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