“Israel can be our potential ally”: Prince Muhammad bin Salman
The Kingdom does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, but the two countries have ties. In 2020, Israel's then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's secret visit to Saudi Arabia raised many speculations.
The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, called Israel a “potential ally” of Riyadh in an interview with a United States monthly magazine, The Atlantic.
“However, we’ve to solve some issues before we get to that,” he added.
“We do not look at Israel as our enemy. We see them as a potential ally, with multiple interests that we can pursue together,” the prince said. Speaking about the Palestine-Israel issue, he said that Riyadh hopes the conflict will be solved.
Muhammad bin Salman also opened up about Iran; he said, “We’re neighbors.
Neighbors forever. We cannot get rid of them, and they can’t alleviate us.” “Hopefully, we can reach to a point that is good for both countries and is going to create a more promising future for us and Iran,” he added.
The prince said that he was unfairly accused of the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “Why would I kill him?” he asked, stating that the accusations hurt him a lot.
Bin Salman claimed that he had never read a Khashoggi article in his life. “In any case, if that’s the way we did things, Khashoggi would not even be among the top 1,000 people on the list,” he added.
The Kingdom does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, but the two countries have ties. In 2020, Israel’s then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s secret visit to Saudi Arabia raised many speculations.
Under Mohammed bin Salman, several progressive developments have been made in Saudi Arabia; women were allowed to drive in 2018 in the Kingdom for the very first time. In 2020, two Gulf countries—the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalized ties with Israel.
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