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Saudi Arabia reaffirmed its firm opposition to any suggestion of displacing Palestinians from their land, the kingdom’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday, following remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The statement, while mentioning Netanyahu by name, did not explicitly address his recent comments suggesting, in jest, that Saudi Arabia could allow a Palestinian state to be established within its own vast territory.
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Benjamin Netanyahu departs for Israel on Sunday
(Video: Shahar Glick)
The Israeli leader made the remarks last Thursday in an interview on Channel 14, a right-wing Israeli outlet. When the interviewer mistakenly said “Saudi state” instead of “Palestinian state,” Netanyahu corrected him but added humorously that perhaps Saudi Arabia could host a Palestinian state instead.
Saudi Arabia, along with Egypt and Jordan, condemned Netanyahu’s remarks, with Cairo calling the suggestion a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty.”
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Riyadh emphasized that it valued the support of its “brotherly” Arab nations in rejecting Netanyahu’s position. “This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land,” the Saudi statement read.
The debate over the future of Gaza and the Palestinian territories has been further complicated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent comments proposing that the United States “take over the Gaza Strip” and transform it into a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere. His proposal was met with widespread condemnation across the Arab world, including from Saudi Arabia.
Trump also recently claimed that Saudi Arabia was not demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel. However, Riyadh quickly rebuffed his assertion, reaffirming its stance that full diplomatic relations with Israel would not be possible without the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.