Saudis deny report Crown Prince MBS said he doesn’t care about the 'Palestinian issue'
According to a recent report from The Atlantic magazine, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) said that while many Saudi citizens are deeply concerned about the “Palestinian issue,” he does not share the same level of concern.
“Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do,” MBS stated, according to the Atlantic.
Ynet News reported that “a Saudi official later suggested that the details of the crown prince's comments in The Atlantic report were inaccurate,” however, he “did not deny the overall substance of the remarks.”
MBS reportedly made the comments during a conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that took place in January, a few months after the war in Gaza began.
The conversation revolved around how to resolve the war and secure the release of the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
It also included a discussion about ongoing efforts to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The crown prince reportedly told Blinken that once there is “calm in Gaza,” such efforts could continue.
Over the past several years, Saudi Arabia and Israel have shown signs of warming relations, driven largely by a shared concern over Iran and its support for Islamist terrorism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the subject in his recent speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, in which he stated that “a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel seemed closer than ever” before Oct. 7.
Netanyahu blamed “the curse of Iran’s unremitting aggression” as the main obstacle preventing “the blessing of a historic reconciliation between Arab and Jew.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
