Saudi Arabia still interested in Israel normalisation after war on Gaza ends

A senior Saudi official has said his country is still interested in normalising ties with Israel after the war on Gaza ends.

Prince Khalid bin Bandar, the Saudi ambassador in London, told the BBC on Tuesday that a normalisation deal was "close" but the kingdom paused US-brokered talks after the attack on Israel on 7 October by Hamas-led fighters.

"For us, the final end point definitely included nothing less than an independent state of Palestine," he said. 

"We were close to normalisation, therefore close to a Palestinian state. One doesn't come without the other. The sequencing, how it is managed, that is what was being discussed," the prince added.

According to Bandar, normalisation was still a hope but would "not come at the cost of the Palestinian people," and that any deal must also lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. 

Regarding the UK's role in the ongoing conflict, in which Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, the prince added that he would like to see the UK "moderate its position" and "treat Israel the same way it treats everyone else". 

"The blind spot towards Israel is a real problem because it provides a blind spot to peace," he said. 

'The [UK's] blind spot towards Israel is a real problem because it provides a blind spot to peace' 

-  Prince Khalid bin Bandar, Saudi ambassador to UK

When asked if Saudi Arabia saw Hamas playing a role in a future Palestinian state, Bandar said that it was a matter that required a lot of thought. 

"There is always room for change if you have optimism and hope. But when there is a conflict the first thing you have to recognise is that both sides have lost," he said.

"The problem that we have today with the current government in Israel is there is an extreme, absolutist perspective which does not work to achieve compromise and therefore you are never going to end the conflict,” he added.

'Pathway to Palestinian state'

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh with normalisation on the agenda. 

"There's a clear interest here in pursuing that," Blinken said. "But it will require that the conflict end in Gaza, and it will also clearly require that there be a practical pathway to a Palestinian state," he told reporters. 

Saudi Arabia has not formally recognised Israel since its creation in 1948. 

Discussions on normalisation came to an abrupt pause following the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, which killed 1140 people. Since then, Israel has killed at least 23,200 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. 

In recent years, Israel has normalised ties with a number of Middle Eastern countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.