Saudi Arabia has expressed a continued interest in a potential normalization agreement with Israel, despite the recent conflict in Gaza, according to remarks made by the Saudi ambassador to the UK.

In a BBC radio interview, Prince Khalid bin Bandar, the Saudi envoy, affirmed Riyadh’s openness to establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, conditioned on the framework of a two-state solution.

“Absolutely there’s interest, there’s been interest since 1982 and before,” Bandar said. “We’ve been at this for a long time, and willing to accept Israel for a long time, it’s a reality that’s there that we have to live with. But we can’t live with Israel without a Palestinian state.”

“The discussions had been going on for quite some time. I’m not at liberty to go into the details of what was discussed, but it was close, there was no question.” He emphasized that Saudi Arabia’s vision for peace unequivocally includes “nothing less than an independent state of Palestine.” Furthermore, he clarified Riyadh’s stance on normalization post-October 7, saying, “And while we still — going forward, even after October 7 — believe in normalization, it does not come at the cost of the Palestinian people.”

The potential for a historic normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia was a subject of widespread speculation just before the conflict initiated by Hamas on October 7, and is believed to have been one of several factors that led Hamas to carry out its massacre.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)