‘Riyadh will consider normalising ties with Israel if behaves like normal country’

The former Saudi intelligence chief stressed that the relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel could be normalised if the latter respects international law.

Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal said that the Kingdom will consider normalising ties with Israel if the latter respects international law.

Faisal stressed that the relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel could be normalised if the latter starts behaving like a “normal country.”

“Saudi Arabia is not considering a normalisation deal with Israel. Should Israel become a normal country with normal acceptance of international law, then Saudi Arabia will consider normalisation,” he said in an interview with the Times of Israel.

Faisal is known for being tough on Israel but his positions have been reflective of Riyadh’s official stance on potential ties with the Jewish state.

He served as the Director General of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Directorate from 1979 to 2001 before shorter stints as Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the United States.

He has continued weighing in on international affairs since his retirement from public life, and he currently serves as the chairman of the King Faisal Foundation’s Center for Research and Islamic Studies.

While Saudi officials don’t interact with Israeli media, the former intelligence chief agreed to answer a series of questions regarding the prospects of a potential normalisation agreement between the Kingdom and Israel.

‘Pathway to statehood’

Speaking of Saudi Arabia’s specific conditions for establishing ties with Israel, given that some Saudi officials have spoken of the need for a Palestinian state to be established while others have insisted upon only a “pathway” to a two-state solution, Prince Turki said there’s “no discrepancy.”

“Realizing the two-state solution requires a serious and trusted pathway that leads to the end goal, which is a viable Palestinian state as envisioned by the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 and the vision of peace presented for a final settlement of this protracted conflict in that initiative,” he said.

He was referencing the Saudi-backed proposal for a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders, along with a “just and agreed” solution to the Palestinian refugee issue, terms successive Israeli governments have rejected.

“Normalising ties with Israel was conditioned by reaching that final and fair solution to the Palestinian cause,” he said.

“Therefore, Saudi statements on a ‘pathway’ mean the need for a reliable peaceful process that leads to [that] final solution, with the understanding that such a process requires involvement of many international and regional countries, including Saudi Arabia, to engage in such a process,” Faisal added.

The former Saudi Intelligence Chief explained that it was the case after the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference of 1991, when Saudi Arabia, with other Arab countries, engaged in that process. “Alas, all went in vain. Israel was not ready to pay the price of peace,” he said.

“The man of peace in Israel at the time was assassinated and his partner from the Palestinian side was poisoned,” he said, referring to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and former Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat, who Israel alleges orchestrated the Second Intifada.

While the Palestinians have long accused Israel of poisoning Arafat, Jerusalem has flatly denied the claims; and none of the independent investigations conducted by Swiss, French and Russian forensics teams definitively concluded that the PLO founder’s 2004 death at the age of 75 was the result of poisoning.

The Trump administration is looking to move past these historical grievances and is hoping Saudi Arabia will, in the near future, join the Abraham Accords, a series of normalisation agreements brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 between Israel and several Arab nations.