RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler said on Wednesday that the kingdom will not establish ties with Israel until a Palestinian state has been created, in a blow to US efforts to seal a normalisation deal.

“We renew the kingdom’s rejection and strong condemnation of the crimes of the Israeli occupation authority against the Palestinian people,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the opening session of its advisory Shura Council.

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“The kingdom will not cease its tireless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without one,” he added.

Normalisation deals brokered by then US president Donald Trump in 2020 between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates had ended a longstanding Arab consensus that there should be no normalisation without an independent Palestinian state and thrown the spotlight on their more powerful neighbour Saudi Arabia.

As recently as earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had been holding out the prospect of the swift establishment of ties with the Gulf Arab oil kingpin as a potential dividend for Israel from a ceasefire and prisoner release deal for Gaza.

Blinken had said during a visit to Haiti on Sept 6 that he still hoped to seal a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia before President Joe Biden steps down in January. “I think if we can get a ceasefire in Gaza, there remains an opportunity through the balance of this administration to move forward on normalisation,” the US top diplomat said.

The United States has readied a security package to offer Saudi Arabia if it normalises relations with Israel, Blinken said earlier this year, as it seeks incentives for Israel to support a Palestinian state.

As part of any deal, Riyadh is expected to insist on a path to statehood for the Palestinians as well as alliance-style security guarantees from Washington. “In order to move forward with normalisation, two things will be required — calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state,” Blinken told a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh.

But the hard-right Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains implacably opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2024