The American magazine “The Atlantic” published a lengthy article covering an interview it conducted with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Kingdom, which will be published in April 2022. The article talked about the circumstances of the meeting of the work team with the prince and the points addressed by the meeting, and also talked about personal aspects in the life of Saudi Prince.
And the Saudi News Agency, SPA, has published excerpts from bin Salman’s statements about some of the most prominent issues he spoke about that affect the Kingdom’s internal affairs and foreign relations.
Some statements about large international files received great interaction on social networking sites. The most important of which is what he said about the kingdom’s relationship with Israel and Iran.
potential ally
Among the points that raised the responses and speculations in the Saudi prince’s statements, was his talk about his country’s relationship with Israel.
Asked about his opinion of the Gulf countries’ normalization of their relations with Israel, bin Salman said, “The agreement between the Gulf Cooperation Council countries is that no country undertakes any political, security, or economic action that would harm the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and all GCC countries are committed to this. Other than that, every country is completely free to do whatever it wants to do as it sees fit.”
As for the position of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia towards Israel, Bin Salman began expressing hope that what he described as the “problem” between the Israelis and the Palestinians would be resolved.
Then he said that the Kingdom “does not view Israel as an enemy, but rather as a potential ally in many interests that we can seek to achieve together, but some issues must be resolved before reaching that.”
The statement, which was not included in an article by the American newspaper “The Atlantic” about the interview, but was published by the Saudi news agency “SPA”, received a great Arab and Israeli interaction.
Arabs were divided on social media, commenting on the prince’s speech, between agreeing and welcoming, and denouncing an angry one.
On the Israeli side, Israel’s official Arabic account on Twitter published a tweet that focused on the prince’s saying, “Saudi Arabia does not view Israel as an enemy, but rather as a potential ally in many interests.”
Before that, he published a tweet in which he excerpted from the prince’s speech about peaceful coexistence between adherents of different religions:
And the official website of Israel in Arabic celebrated Bin Salman’s statement, the Israeli journalist Eddie Cohen, with a tweet in which he said, “From now on every Saudi says that Israel is an enemy that contradicts the directions of His Highness the Crown Prince.”
Then Cohen posted on Tik-Tok and Twitter a video in which he thanks Bin Salman for his statements and hopes to conclude a “peace agreement” between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Far from being welcomed or angry, bin Salman’s statement opened doors for analysis and speculation.
Some read it as a prelude to announcing the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Which seemed to some to be a matter of time after the UAE and Bahrain concluded normalization agreements with Israel.
This is not the first time that speculation has spread on social media that a “peace agreement” or a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel is imminent.
This happened previously after an interview conducted by Al-Arabiya TV with the former head of Saudi intelligence and the Saudi ambassador to Washington for 22 years, Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, during which he strongly criticized the Palestinian leaders who described the Gulf states’ peace moves with Israel as “treason” and “a stab.” at noon”.
But so far, Saudi Arabia has not concluded a normalization agreement with Israel.
Bin Salman’s conversation with “The Atlantic” about the relationship with Israel, which came in response to a question about his opinion on what is known as the “Abraham Agreement,” according to which the UAE printed its relations with it, spread widely.
But some of those who discussed bin Salman’s statements were satisfied with the phrase, “It does not view Israel as an enemy, but rather as a potential ally in many interests that we can seek to achieve together.” ..
Others highlighted the second part of it, which included the “condition” for solving “certain issues”.
This “condition” was seen by some as an exclusion of the possibility of normalization, in the near future at least, if what the prince meant by resolving some issues, an agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis, or solving what the Saudi prince describes as “the problem.”
Neighbors We can’t get rid of each other
In his meeting with The Atlantic, Bin Salman talked about many internal and external affairs, and even personal ones.
But the point that also sparked controversy is his talk about the relationship with Iran.
The prince said, “They are our neighbors, and they will remain our neighbors forever. We cannot get rid of them, and they cannot get rid of us, so it is better that we sort things out, and look for ways to be able to coexist. In four months we have had discussions, and we have heard many statements from Iranian leaders.” Which was our welcome.”
Bin Salman’s talk about “coexistence” and resolving matters” with Iran also seemed conditional on a “satisfactory” solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
Bin Salman added, speaking about the relationship with Iran, by saying, “But I think that any country in the world that has nuclear bombs is dangerous, so we do not want to see that, and also we do not want to see a weak nuclear agreement, because it will eventually lead to the same result.” .
Bin Salman’s talk about the Saudi-Iranian talks received a response from the Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, who wrote on his Twitter account: “The active presence of Iran’s program in bilateral talks with Saudi Arabia, hosted by Iraq, stems from the principled strategy of the Islamic Republic. cooperation and friendship with its neighbors on the basis of securing common and regional interests.
Shamkhani concluded the tweet by saying, “We must not forget that the Zionist entity is the biggest enemy of the Islamic world and the Arab world.”
Perhaps this sentence, along with what bin Salman said above, that his country “does not view Israel as an enemy” is enough to understand that the matter is more difficult and complicated than the mere “intention” of the parties to move towards “peace” and resolve differences.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have held rounds of negotiations since April 2021 to improve relations between them and reach a solution to a number of outstanding issues between the two countries, especially the war in Yemen.