The Atlantic also shared quotes from a January 8 meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who expressed interest in normalization with Israel on the condition that Jerusalem would commit to allowing the establishment of a Palestinian state. A Saudi official described The Atlantic’s account of the conversation as “incorrect.”
MBS reportedly also told Blinken during the meeting in Saudi Arabia he would not need the Israelis to commit to a total halt on counterterrorism raids in Gaza in exchange for a normalization deal.
“They can come back in six months, a year, but not on the back end of my signing something like this,” he said, according to the report.
“Seventy percent of my population is younger than me,” the de-facto Saudi ruler reportedly said. “For most of them, they never really knew much about the Palestinian issue. And so they’re being introduced to it for the first time through this conflict. It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful.”