Saudi Arabia announces coalition to push for Palestinian state

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses world leaders during the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters on September 27, 2024 in New York City. World leaders convened for the General Assembly as the world continues to experience major wars in Gaza, Ukraine and, Sudan along with a threat of a larger conflict in the Middle East. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has announced an “international alliance” to press for Palestinian statehood, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, state media said on Friday.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the “International Alliance to Implement the Two-State Solution” included Arab and Islamic countries, as well as European partners, the Saudi Press Agency said, without giving details.

The Gaza war has revived talk of a “two-state solution” of Israeli and Palestinian states living in peace side by side, but analysts said the goal seems more unattainable than ever.

The hard-right Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains implacably opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites, paused US-brokered talks on recognizing Israel after the Gaza war broke out between Hamas Palestinian militants and Israel.

Earlier this month, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, toughened his tone, explicitly saying that an “independent Palestinian state” is a condition for normalization.

A senior official of the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) told AFP that the new coalition “consists mainly of Islamic and Arab members of OIC plus some European countries.”

“There will be meetings in Arab and European countries to discuss the practical execution of the initiative and a conference later this year in Riyadh,” added the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

Prompting Israeli anger, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced their recognition of a Palestinian state in May. Slovenia followed, bringing the number of countries that recognize a Palestinian state to 146 out of the 193 United Nations member states.

Prince Faisal said the nearly year-long Israel-Hamas war, which has left 41,534 people dead according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, could not be justified by Israel as “self-defense”.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

“Self-defence cannot justify the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, the practice of systematic destruction, forced displacement [and] the use of starvation as a tool of war,” Prince Faisal told a ministerial meeting on the Palestinian crisis, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, SPA said.