Saudi Says No Israeli Ties Unless Gaza ‘Aggression’ Halted

Smoke billows during Israeli bombardment in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 6.

(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry informed President Joe Biden’s administration there will be no diplomatic ties with Israel unless the “aggression” against Gaza is stopped and Israel recognizes the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital.

The position of Saudi Arabia is firm in that the Palestinian people must get their legitimate rights, the ministry said in a statement carried by the kingdom’s news agency SPA late Tuesday. The war in Gaza forced a pause on the US-led negotiations over a potential normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The statement comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on his fifth trip to the region since Hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and the European Union, attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and seizing some 240 hostages. The US has sought to ease the fighting and moderate Israel’s response after it launched a punishing military campaign on the Gaza Strip that has killed some 25,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.

Blinken was in Doha after a stop in Riyadh, where he met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The top US diplomat said the prince, known as MBS, reiterated the kingdom’s “strong interest” in a normalization deal with Israel but needs to see a cease-fire in Gaza and a “credible, time-bound path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Saudi Arabia has resumed talks with the US about forging closer defense ties after a pause following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, people familiar with the discussions said in late January.

On the agenda was a revival of earlier negotiations about a defense pact that would also have included an historic tie-up between Saudi Arabia and Israel, they said.

(Updates with details on Blinken’s visit, background.)

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