Palestine hails Saudi Arabia's stance in rejecting normalization deal with Israel

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - Palestine on Wednesday welcomed Saudi Arabia's stance in rejecting a normalization deal with Israel without recognizing a Palestinian state on lands it had in 1967.

"We thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its firm position, and efforts to stand alongside the Palestinian people and their just cause," said Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), in a statement on his X account.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced that it will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until an independent Palestinian state is established.

"There will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognized on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops," a Saudi Foreign Ministry statement said.

The statement came after US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US administration has received "positive feedback" that Saudi Arabia and Israel are willing to continue to have normalization discussions.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, killing at least 27,585 Palestinians and injuring 66,978 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara