Saudi Arabia defies claims it will normalise with Israel before Gaza ceasefire

Saudi Arabia‘s foreign ministry poured cold water on claims it was prepared to normalise relations with Israel before a ceasefire was brokered in Gaza and without progress toward Palestinian statehood.

“The kingdom has communicated its firm position to the US administration that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops and all Israeli occupation forces withdraw from the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement issued early on Wednesday. 

The statement followed positive remarks about progress on Saudi-Israeli normalisation made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. 

Blinken met with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh on Monday as part of a Middle East tour that has taken in Egypt, Israel and Qatar.

At a press conference in Doha on Tuesday, Blinken said: “With regard specifically to normalisation, the crown prince reiterated Saudi Arabia’s strong interest in pursuing that.”

Just hours before the Saudi statement was released, Kirby said that US President Joe Biden’s administration had received positive feedback regarding progress towards normalisation.

The idea of Israel and Saudi Arabia formally cementing ties has been under discussion since the Saudis gave their assent to Gulf neighbours United Arab Emirates and Bahrain establishing ties with Israel in 2020.

Several Saudi officials, including Mohammed bin Salman, have publicly acknowledged their willingness to normalise relations with Israel, even after it went to war with Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October.

But Riyadh has publicly stressed that no deal can be reached until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and that it must include the creation of an irreversible pathway toward a Palestinian state.

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has all but rejected a two-state solution and a large percentage of Israelis would oppose a framework based on pre-1967 lines, the Saudi statement stresses not Israeli recognition but the role of the UN Security Council.

“The kingdom reiterates its call to the permanent members of the UN Security Council that have not yet recognised the Palestinian state, to expedite the recognition of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, so that the Palestinian people can obtain their legitimate rights and so that a comprehensive and just peace is achieved for all,” the statement reads.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the umbrella organisation of the Palestinian national movement, said it supported Saudi Arabia’s position.

“We thank Saudi Arabia for its firm position and efforts to stand with the Palestinian people and their just cause,” the group’s secretary-general, Hussein al-Sheikh, posted on social media.

In late December, a poll conducted by the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Affairs, a pro-Israel think tank based in Washington, found that 96 percent of Saudis believe Arab countries should cut ties with Israel in response to the war on Gaza.

Hamas proposes a three-stage ceasefire over 135 days

At the Doha press conference with Blinken on Tuesday, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, described Hamas’s reaction to a proposed truce deal with Israel as “generally positive”, without providing more details.

Blinken said the Palestinian armed movement’s response to the proposal brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States had been shared with Israeli officials.

Netanyahu’s office said that Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency, had received Hamas’s counter-proposal and “its details are being thoroughly evaluated.”

On Wednesday, several news agencies, including Reuters, said they had seen the Palestinian group’s proposed three-stage ceasefire plan, which would see the release of all Israeli captives, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the release of 1,500 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

According to the draft document, the Hamas counter-proposal envisions three phases, each lasting 45 days.

All Israeli women hostages, males under 19, the elderly and the sick would be released during the first 45-day phase in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails.

The remaining male hostages would be released during the second phase, and remain exchanged in the third phase. By the end of the third phase, Hamas would expect the sides to have reached an agreement on an end to the war.

The group, which governs Gaza, says in an addendum to the proposal that it seeks the release of 1,500 prisoners, a third of whom it wants to select from a list of Palestinians handed life sentences by Israel.

The truce would also increase the flow of food and other aid to the embattled territory, with the group demanding 500 trucks a day.