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At the beginning of February 2024, Saudi Arabia demanded a Palestinian State along the 1967 borders, including Gaza, East Jerusalem, and all of the West Bank – with East Jerusalem as its capital. See this.
“The Kingdom is demanding the recognition of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Additionally, it has called for an end to Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip and insisted on the withdrawal of all Israeli occupation forces from the enclave as a prerequisite for any future diplomatic engagement with Israel.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Saudi Arabia’s position on the Palestinian issue is steadfast, affirming the necessity for the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate rights.
This stance is particularly relevant in light of ongoing discussions between Saudi Arabia and the US concerning the Arab-Israeli peace process, further underscored by recent comments from the spokesperson for the US National Security Council.”
That was at the time a clear statement. No misconceptions were possible.
But the Saudi clarity hasn’t lasted for long.
Contrary to the Saudi’s own clear statement earlier in this month in February, Saudi Arabia now states that the borders of a Palestinian State are “still to be defined”.
The 1967-borders are absolutely well-defined. It is impossible to speak of “1967 borders” and at the same maintain that those same borders “need to be defined”.
Saudi Arabia therefore seems, after less than a month, to already backtrack on the extent of a Palestinian State. This way, Saudi Arabia seems to leave open the possibility of a purely symbolic but dysfunctional Palestinian enclave without Gaza or East Jerusalem, a small Bantustan on the West Bank inside a Greater Israel stretching all the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Israeli and US analysts have all the time been convinced, that the leaderships of Saudi Arabia and all the surrounding Arab Muslim states will sacrifice the Palestinians – that Israel doesn’t need to worry about a Palestinian State. Lately, the Israeli war government has with one voice rejected any notion of a Palestinian State at all.
The Israelis and Americans could be right in their cynical view of Arab government callousness relative to the Palestinians. If so, that would be completely in line the pessimistic analysis of Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara.
Marwan Bishara believes that US President Biden – while speaking nicely about a “Palestinian State” – the USA and its President Biden in reality plan to sabotage a full and meaningful Palestinian statehood. This is typical US lies and double-speak. Today, the Americans want to calm down the Arab world with talk of a “Palestinian State”. But when the dust settles, Americans and Israelis are convinced that they can afterwards feed Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states off with a symbolic Palestinian rump state on (less than) half the territory of the West Bank – not even a full state, but an empty puppet-state, a statelet only with the symbols of a state.
Amid Israel’s ongoing genocide, Saudi Arabia as Custodian of two of the Holiest Cities in Islam needs to clarify and repeat in no uncertain terms its unwavering defense of Palestine.
Saudi Arabia today has let a major problem arise involving believability and trust.
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article.
