NEW YORK — In a historic interview on Fox News which aired Wednesday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman spoke candidly about the negotiations for a normalization agreement with Israel.
“Every day we get closer, it seems it’s for the first time really serious. We get to see how it goes,” bin Salman told Bret Baier in the interview.
He insisted his country could work with Israel, no matter who is in charge, calling a potential deal “the biggest historical deal since the end of the Cold War.”
Saudi Arabia is moving closer to 'every day' normalizing ties with Israel.
— Globe Eye News (@GlobeEyeNews) September 21, 2023
"For us, the Palestinian issue is very important. We need to solve that part."
– Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tells Fox News. #FoxNews l #MohammedbinSalman l #SaudiArabia l #Israel l #Palestine l… pic.twitter.com/UZCsm5wGTc
However Bin Salman also warned that the deal required concessions to Palestinian demands, stressing that “For us, the Palestinian issue is very important. We need to solve that part.”
Despite this, Bin Salman is optimistic, stating that “If we have a breakthrough of reaching a deal that give the Palestinians their needs and make the region calm, we’re going to work with whoever is there. He reiterated that he could not go into greater detail regarding Saudi demands but said that he wanted to see “a good life for the Palestinians.”
Bin Salman also rejected the reports that Saudi Arabia had paused negotiations, which he stressed was “not true.”
Commenting on the deal in which the Biden administration agreed to provide Iran access to roughly $6 billion in frozen assets for humanitarian purposes in exchange for five detained Americans, the Saudi Crown Prince argued that the deal presents a positive “step” in negotiations, and that he hopes Iran uses the money for good purposes to encourage the world to “do more.”
When asked about the potential for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and what it means for Saudi Arabia, the Crown Prince emphasized that, should Iran ever obtain such a weapon, Saudi Arabia would “have to get one, for security reasons, for balancing power.”
“We are concerned if any country getting a nuclear weapon: That’s a bad, that’s a bad move,” he said. “They don’t need to get nuclear weapon because you cannot use it.”
“Any country using a nuclear weapon that means they are having a war with the rest of the world,” added bin Salman. “The world cannot see another Hiroshima. If the world sees 100,000 people dead that mean you are in a war with the rest of the world.”
“So to use this effort to reach a nuclear weapon, because you cannot use it. If you use it, you got to have a big fight with the rest of the world,” he added.
The Saudi Crown Prince’s comments come as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held his first meeting with US President Joe Biden in New York City.
Netanyahu told Biden that, “I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and I think such a peace would go a long way, first, to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state, and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This is something within our reach.”
As reported by VINnews