In Saudi Arabia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Faisal Ben Farhane, ruled on Wednesday that his country would follow the example of the United Arab Emirates by forging diplomatic relations with Israel, in the absence of peace with the Palestinians.
"There must be a peace between Israel and the Palestinians, resting on recognized international bases" in favor of the creation of a Palestinian state, he declared at a press conference in Berlin. "When this is achieved, then everything will be possible again".
"Conditions have changed"
"When we gave our support to the Arab peace plan in 2002, we thought that there would also be relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel," said the Saudi foreign minister.
This initiative aimed to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, by improving relations between Israel and the Arab world, in return for Israel's total withdrawal from the Occupied Territories and a viable solution for the Palestinians. "But the conditions have changed," said the official, qualifying "illegal" the policy of "unilateral annexation" of Israel, moreover "harmful to the two-state solution".
This is the first position taken by Riyadh on the historic agreement concluded last week between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, under the aegis of the United States, on a normalization of their relations.
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