Crown prince Mohamad bin Salman > US State Department, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
US secretary of state Antony Blinken claimed last week that any potential normalisation agreement between the Saudis and Israel would have to include steps towards a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
Blinken stressed his view that if the Israel-Saudi normalisation process is “to move forward, the Palestinian piece is going to be very important too”.
“That’s clearly something that’s important to the Saudis in doing any kind of deal. It would be important to [the Biden administration] too”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top aide, national security council chairman Tzachi Hanegbi, said on Monday that Israel “supports a significant Palestinian component in the agreement with Saudi Arabia,” while noting that any Israeli concessions in that arena cannot come at the expense of security.
Unusually, the Palestinian Authority has not boycotted the Saudi-Israeli negotiation process, as it hopes to leverage a potential deal, including presenting a series of measures that it would like from the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel within the negotiations.