Saudi Arabia rules out Israel normalisation without Palestinian state

Saudi Arabia has once again ruled out normalising ties with Israel unless a sovereign Palestinian state is established, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said during a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot at the United Nations.

"For the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, normalisation with Israel can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state," Prince Faisal stated firmly. “That position remains the same, and it is based on a strong conviction that only through the establishment of a Palestinian state and only through addressing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination can we have sustainable peace and real integration in the region,” Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

The remarks came just days after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state in September, in a move likely to increase diplomatic pressure on Israel.

Despite renewed U.S. efforts under President Donald Trump to include Saudi Arabia in the Abraham Accords—a set of U.S.-brokered normalisation agreements between Israel and several Arab nations—Riyadh has maintained its long-held position. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has consistently tied normalisation to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Prince Faisal also pointed to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip as a major obstacle to any meaningful talks. “There is no credibility to have a conversation about normalisation with constant death and suffering and destruction in Gaza,” he said, as famine-like conditions continue to ravage the war-torn enclave.

International criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has been mounting, with Western governments facing growing calls to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act decisively to end the crisis and move toward a political solution.

President Trump, who earlier this year controversially floated the idea of U.S. control over Gaza, held a meeting on July 28 with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Turnberry, Scotland, where they discussed humanitarian aid coordination. Trump announced plans to launch a new international effort—together with the UK, EU, and other partners—to deliver food aid to Gaza, while notably refusing to take a definitive position on Palestinian statehood.

By Vugar Khalilov