Alwaght- At a time the Israeli regime is striving to bury the Palestinian cause and implement its ambitious plans in the West Bank by luring the Arab countries into normalization process, Saudi Arabia has presented a new initiative that shocked the Israelis.
On Saturday, Riyadh named Nayef al-Sudairi as its non-resident ambassador to Palestine. Al-Sudairi handed a copy of his credentials to Majdi al-Khaledi, the advisor to the Palestinian Authority (PA) president in the Palestinian embassy in Jordan, and the main version will soon be handed to President Mahmoud Abbas.
“This is a major step forward and highlights King Salman and Crown Prince’s emphasis on boosting relations with our brothers in Palestine,” said al-Sudairi.
For his part, Majdi Al-Khaldi welcomed the appointment of the Saudi ambassador to Palestine and during a meeting organized by the Palestinian embassy in Jordan, he said : “This is an important step in strengthening the strong and stable brotherly relations that unite the two brotherly countries and nations.”
A PA official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said in a conversation with AFP that by naming an ambassador, Saudi Arabia recognized the Palestinian state with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital, and this step is part of multi-stage measures and we will continue to develop relations with Riyadh.
In recent decades, Saudi Arabia has been one of the financial sponsors of the PA and is trying to bolster its political support for it by naming an ambassador and augmenting the weight of the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation.
Saudi commitment to two-state solution
The new Saudi move comes in a situation in which senior American officials have been trying to convince the Saudis to normalize relations with the Israeli regime with frequent trips to Saudi Arabia in recent months. Therefore, naming an ambassador in Palestine is a clear message to the Washington and Tel Aviv that the Saudis are still sticking to their initiative in support of Palestine.
In 2002, Saudi Arabia proposed a peace plan based on international resolutions with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, but Israeli government rejected the imitative and has not yet allowed the establishment of a Palestinian state. This plan proposes withdrawal of the Israelis from the West Bank and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital, but in the past two decades, the Israeli occupiers have not only not withdrawn from the West Bank, but also continued to develop construct new settlements in this Palestinian region.
Although the Israeli regime promised in Oslo Accords in 1993 to prepare the conditions for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the authorities of this regime have not fulfilled their commitments, to the extent that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently openly asserted that Tel Aviv will not allow formation of an independent Palestinian state. Even the hardline government of Netanyahu, by approving controversial and provocative plans, has already ushered in Judaization of Al-Quds, triggering tensions with Palestinian resistance forces.
Despite Washington's repeated efforts to complete the normalization and an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, the Saudis still insist on their plans to form a Palestinian state, and this disagreement with Tel Aviv has blocked the path to normalization.
Naming of an ambassador in occupied Al-Quds is a kind of message to the US and the Israeli regime that if a positive step in the normalization process is to be taken by the kingdom in the future, Riyadh must agree to the Arab peace initiative. Therefore, the appointment of the Saudi ambassador to Palestine refutes Netanyahu's claims that the Saudis will not link the normalization to the Palestinian cause.
Easing pressures for normalization
The new Saudi move seeks other aims. Under the leadership of Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia seeks to strengthen its political weight in the regional developments by naming an ambassador to Palestine to show that the oil-wealthy monarchy is still a supporter of the Palestinians, as in recent months there has been serious criticism against Riyadh regarding possible normalization of relations with Tel Aviv.
The course of developments indicates that bin Salman is mulling normalization and the secret business relations with the Israelis in recent years are driven by this willingness. Therefore, Saudi Arabia, which sees normalization not far away, by naming a Palestine ambassador wants to prepare the Arab world public opinion for thaw with the Israeli regime in the near future to ease the pressures on Riyadh.
In recent months, Riyadh and Washington have discussed new Saudi conditions for progress toward normalization, including security guarantees and assistance in building a civilian nuclear program capable of enriching uranium, and so the Saudis are preparing to normalize relations with Tel Aviv, and the ambassador naming seeks a balance between the Palestinians and Israelis. After all, the level of tensions between Palestine and Tel Aviv has heightened, and Arab public showed in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar that they are against any kind of normalization and Arab compromises to the Israelis. So, the Saudis do not want to make an uncalculated move that brings them disgrace of normalization among Muslim and Arab nations.
Under his Saudi Vision 2030, bin Salman plans to augment the economic status of Saudi Arabia in the region and the world, and he is eyeing the financial support of the Israelis for the construction of his dream city of Neom and other economic projects. In the past two years, a number of Israeli businessmen have visited Saudi Arabia to discuss investment in these projects. According to the Israeli media, bin Salman has decided to establish a link between Saudi Arabia and Israeli regime through the Neom project to work as a bridge to normalization in the near future.
Israeli fury
Netanyahu government that has no plans to make concessions to the Palestinians and even pushes to expel them from their lands is infuriated by the Saudi move.
In reaction, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said: "Will there be an official physically sitting in Jerusalem? This we will not allow.... The Saudis want to convey the message to the Palestinians that they have not forgotten them, but we do not allow countries to open consulates, this conflicts with our opinion. The issue of Palestine was never the main issue in the normalization talks.”
Israeli media outlets described the Saudi move a” historic step” bearing a message to the Israelis that any normalization agreement is tied to addressing the Palestinian cause.
The Israelis insist that Palestine case should not be included in the negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the United States regarding the normalization, but the Saudis tie any progress in the thaw case to the Palestine case.
An Israeli official told Arab 48 news website: “The Saudis have big demands in this regard and they want us to implement them in a real, not demonstrative, way, but in the current structure of the Israeli government we have nothing to give them in this regard, and the settlement construction will never stop even for a second.”
Given the strong stances of the Israelis against the Saudi demands in the normalization process, it seems that the Saudi rulers seriously cling to formation of a Palestinian state as a key demand and it can be suggested that a thaw with Tel Aviv in the current circumstances is unthinkable, since the hardliners in Tel Aviv are not inclined to make concessions and this is a great barrier ahead of the normalization.
For Saudi Arabia that promotes itself as the Arab world leader, support to Palestine is a matter of face and Riyadh cannot quit its initiative as it will damage its image in the Arab world.
While the normalization between Riyadh and Tel Aviv and the speculations around it have been making headlines in the past weeks, Israeli media talk about challenges and roadblocks that are stifling advances towards an agreement. The challenges include the Saudi conditions in the talks with the Americans. One of these conditions is uranium enrichment on Saudi soil. But Tel Aviv has so far opposed the idea and showed no flexibility to the Saudi side.
In a recent speech, Netanyahu backed the normalization with Saudi Arabia, but said he is not ready to risk Israeli security for peace with Saudi Arabia.
As the only holder of nuclear arms, the Israeli regime is concerned about Arab countries’ access to nuclear energy and is struggling to maintain this decades-long equation in its favor.
