Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Israel a “potential ally” of Riyadh, in an interview with a United States (US) monthly magazine, The Atlantic.
“But we have to solve some issues before we get to that,” he added.
“We don’t look at Israel as an enemy, we look to them as a potential ally, with many interests that we can pursue together,” the prince said. Talking about the Palestine-Israel issue, he said that Riyadh hopes that the conflict between them is solved.
Interestingly, the prince also opened up about Iran, he said, “They are neighbours. Neighbours forever. We cannot get rid of them, and they can’t get rid of us.”
“Hopefully, we can reach a position that’s good for both countries and is going to create a brighter future for them and Iran,” he added.
About the assassination of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, the prince said that he was unfairly blamed for it.
“Why would I do it?” he asked, saying that accusations that he ordered the killing “hurt me a lot”. He claimed that he 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,” added the prince.
The Kingdom does not have diplomatic relations with Israel but the two countries are believed to have ties. In 2020, Israel’s then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s secret visit to Saudi Arabia raised speculations.
Under Mohammed bin Salman, a series of progressive developments have been made in Saudi Arabia, women were allowed to drive for the first time in 2018 in the Kingdom.
In 2020, two Gulf countries— Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalised ties with Israel.
