JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Saudi Arabia has sent a warning to Israel via the US that a military operation in Rafah would be a great mistake and would further delay the normalization of ties between the two nations, according to a report by Israel’s Reshet Bet radio channel, citing a source in the Saudi royal family.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The source stated that such an operation would only serve Iran, which does not want the situation in Gaza to calm down.
According to the Saudi source, Israel must make sacrifices for peace to create a regional alliance with the Arab nations based on the already existing partnership in order to fight Iran and Hezbollah.
The Saudi source further stated that if there will not be a Palestinian state, Israel will not be able to establish ties with its nation. Saudis see themselves as the leaders of the Muslim and Arab worlds and therefore feel that they must advocate for the Palestinians. Agreeing to normalization with Israel without the foundation of a Palestinian state would damage that status.
The military operation in Rafah has been put on hold for months as Israel has held protracted negotiations with Egypt and Qatar in an attempt to find a framework for a prisoner deal. The current offer, negotiated by Egypt and Qatar, is a three-part deal which would see all of the live hostages released in return for the release of over a thousand terrorists and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip. Israel is willing to accept a recess in the war but insists that it will continue its offensive against Hamas even after a prisoner deal. Hamas is apparently set to reject the new proposal, but has not closed the door on further negotiations in a similar framework.
US Secretary of State Blinken, who is currently visiting Israel, continued voicing the Biden administration’s stance that Hamas is the side preventing a hostage deal.
“Israel has made very important compromises in the proposal that’s on the table, demonstrating its desire, willingness to get this agreement done,” he said during a press conference while visiting the Ashdod Port, which last month Israel began using to more directly transport aid to Gaza.
“Now, as we’ve been saying, it’s on Hamas. Hamas has to decide whether it will take this deal and actually advance the situation for the people that it purports to care about in Gaza. There is no time for delay,” he said.
Blinken also reiterated Washington’s opposition to an IDF invasion in Rafah, “absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed” — one that he said Israel has yet to provide.
“Saudi Arabia has sent Israel a warning via the US”? I think you got it backwards. I think the US has sent Israel a message via Saudi Arabia. Neither Saudi Arabia nor any other moderate Arab state (And I use the term moderate loosely), Has any use for these Palestinian savages. they are viewed as gypsies and are treated as such in the gulf states and Egypt.
Israel’s security is way more important then (phoney ) relationships with the Saudis
I’d make that deal contingent upon Saudi Arabia accepted tens of thousands of gazanians
As I seem to
Remember after 1967 war the Palestinians fled to almost every moslem nation including Saudi Arabia Egypt Jordan and they thru them out Is there something they all know and the west doesn’t want to accept
Peace with arab countries or any other country is just lip service meaning if you do like we say and let terrorists over run your country that is ok