Saudi Arabia moving ‘closer’ to Israel normalisation, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Saudi Arabia moving ‘closer’ to Israel normalisation, says Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an interview with Fox News.

The interview with the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, told Fox’s, Special Report, that the Palestinian issue was “very important” to Riyadh.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman provided insight into his relationship with the U.S. and Israel in a Special Report interview for the first time in English, recorded in Sindalah Island KSA.

“We need to solve that part,” he said when asked what it would take to get a normalisation agreement.

“We got to see where we go. We hope that will reach a place, that it will ease the life of the Palestinians, get Israel as a player in the Middle East,” he added.

MBS also voiced concern about the possibility that Iran, a mutual adversary of Saudi Arabia and Israel that the US wants to contain, could obtain a nuclear weapon. While Tehran has denied seeking a nuclear bomb.

“That’s a bad move,” he said, adding, “If you use it, you got to have a big fight with the rest of the world.”

On the other hand, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accuses Saudi Arabia of betraying the Palestinians by seeking to normalise relations with Israel.

It is pertinent to mention here that in March this year, Iran and Saudi Arabia announced that the two countries would normalize relations for the first time in seven years.

The development came as China mediated an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to normalize diplomatic relations.

While normalization between the two Middle Eastern rivals was in the works for some time, Beijing brokered the detente and sent geopolitical shockwaves around the world.

This interview with Fox’s anchor, Bret Baier, was the Saudi royal’s first on US TV since 2019.

The latest interview comes as US President Joe Biden-led administration puts efforts into brokering historic ties between the two regional powerhouses, Saudi Arabia and Israel, both are Washington’s top Middle East allies.