It
was an odd statement. Far from reporting
any development in the kingdom’s relations with Israel, Prince Faisal announced
that Saudi Arabia was trying to find a way to negotiate with Iran, apparently
hoping the Abraham Accords would persuade it to engage – an argument unlikely
to cut much ice. The prince said that
the decision by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to focus on their economies
and development was a "strong signal to Iran and others in the region that
there is a pathway beyond traditional arguments and disputes towards joint
prosperity.”
Saudi
Arabia and Iran – long rivals for dominance in the Muslim world – severed
relations in 2016, but for a full year starting in April 2021 officials from
the two countries held direct talks, hosted by Iraq, presumably directed at
achieving some sort of accommodation. There
have been five rounds in all, the last in April 2022. All proved inconclusive. Yet Prince Faisal apparently remains
hopeful. During his address at Davos he
remained provocatively unclear as to which he considers the more important –
repairing relations with Iran, or signing up to normalization with Israel. As
practical political objectives, the two seem incompatible, and he may soon have
to make a choice between them.
Founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a German engineer, economist and academic now in his eighties, the World Economic Forum has become an established annual event. This year it took place as usual in Davos from January 16 to 20. Israel’s new foreign minister, Eli Cohen, was in attendance. His brief was doubtless to try to advance Netanyahu’s hope of persuading Saudi Arabia to sign up to the Abraham Accords. Prince Faisal’s remarks about Iran, added to others in which he highlighted regional concerns over Israel's new government and its "provocative policies", did not set a hopeful tone. His comments in a TV interview on January 19 did nothing to improve matters. On normalizing relations with Israel, he indicated no movement at all on the traditional Saudi stance.
“We have said
consistently that we believe normalization with Israel is something that is
very much in the interest of the region,” he said. “However, true normalization
and true stability will only come through giving the Palestinians hope, through
giving the Palestinians dignity. That
requires giving the Palestinians a state, and that’s the priority.”
Prince
Faisal is certainly correct in describing the Saudi stance on normalization as
consistent. An Arab offer to normalize
relations with Israel, come to be known as the Arab Peace Initiative (API), was
first made in a meeting of the Arab League in 2002. The plan, endorsed on three
subsequent occasions by the Arab League, advocates a two-state solution to the
Israel-Palestine dispute. Given the
establishment of a sovereign Palestine on territories overrun by Israel during
the Six-Day War, namely the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and a
just resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue, the API promises full
normalization of relations between the Muslim world and Israel.
For twenty years Saudi
Arabia has continued to advocate the two-state solution as a prerequisite for
normalization. But Saudi leaders have increasingly failed to take into account
that the Initiative was drafted well before Hamas gained control of Gaza. The
situation in 2023 is radically different from what it was in 2002. Ever since
2007, when Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian people have
been split in two. The half under Hamas control, or suppporting the Hamas
agenda, would never subscribe to a two-state solution. One of the states would be Israel and Hamas,
regarding Israel as interlopers on Palestinian land, aims to overthrow it. World
opinion, including Saudi Arabia, has never faced up to the awkward truth that
in order to achieve a two-state solution, the Hamas organization must first be
disempowered.
In any case, even for
less extreme elements within the Palestinian world, paying lip-service to a
two-state solution is only a tactic, a stepping stone. The true Palestinian
cause is to gain control of the whole of Mandate Palestine, “from the river to
the sea.” Any Palestinian leader signing
a deal that confirmed Israel’s right to exist on that territory would be
denounced as a traitor to the Palestinian cause.
Back
in February 2022 Prince Faisal’s position seemed somewhat more encouraging than
at Davos. He is quoted as saying: "The
integration of Israel in the region will be a huge benefit not only for Israel
itself but for the entire region."
Yet he reiterated: “…this will happen when a just solution is
found."
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-730098
Published in Eurasia Review, 10 February 2023:
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