Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman chairs the first season of the Saudi-Bahraini Coordination Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Dec, 24, 2020. (Photo: Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS)
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) reportedly told U.S. Members of Congress that normalizing ties with Israel could put his life at risk.
Nevertheless, MBS considers peace with Israel as “crucial to his country’s future,” Politico reported on Wednesday. The report stressed that he appears intent on striking a deal with both Israel and the United States, despite the risks involved.
The report quoted unnamed individuals with knowledge of the conversations, including a former U.S. official. They all mentioned that any such peace deal with Israel would have to include a true path to Palestinian statehood.
As one source told Politico: “The way he put it was, ‘Saudis care very deeply about this, and the street throughout the Middle East cares deeply about this, and my tenure as the keeper of the holy sites of Islam will not be secure if I don’t address what is the most pressing issue of justice in our region.’”
A senior Biden administration official added that MBS is also taking into account the perspectives of the younger generation in Saudi Arabia. For many of them the current war in Gaza is the first major conflict they lived through, he explained.
“It doesn’t take being inside his head to understand that this would be weighing on him,” the official argued.
In that context, the Saudi royal reportedly mentioned the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and was assassinated two years later. MBS wondered what the U.S. did to protect Sadat.
According to Politico’s senior foreign affairs correspondent, Nahal Toosi, this could be viewed as a wise diplomatic marketing strategy on behalf of the crown prince. He is likely trying to put pressure on the U.S. to pressure Israel to agree to his terms.
Saudi Arabia is hoping that, in exchange for peace with Israel, the United States will provide the kingdom with a defense treaty and assistance with establishing a civilian nuclear program.
However, a senior Saudi official quoted in the article said MBS believes his country would not benefit from the economic and technological perks of the deal unless there is security and stability in the region. For that to be achieved, the Palestinian issue must be addressed, he said.
Yet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not believe that resolving the conflict must necessarily mean the foundation of a fully sovereign Palestinian state.
In his recent interview with TIME magazine, Netanyahu said: “I’ve always said that my vision for an arrangement, a long-term arrangement, with the Palestinians would mean that they should have all the powers to govern themselves but none of the powers to threaten us.”
When asked about the likelihood of a mega-deal with Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza, the prime minister replied: “Once we win, I think things will fall in place, and actually, the Saudi deal will become more likely. In any case, I haven’t given up on the deal.”
Ynet News reported last month that officials in Washington and Jerusalem estimate that a normalization deal will not come to fruition before the U.S. presidential elections in November.
