Saudi Arabia has 'a lot of room' to build Palestinian state, says Netanyahu

In an apparent swipe at the Saudi demand to Palestinian statehood, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a Palestinian state may be established inside Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has stated that the establishment of the Palestinian state comprising West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as the capital is the basis of any normalisation agreement with Israel. In the wake of US President Donald Trump's announcement of the plan to annex Gaza and expelling all Palestinians from the strip, which has been endorsed by Netanyahu , Saudis have doubled down on their demand.

In an interview with Hebrew-language Channel 14, Netanyahu said that “the Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there”, according to an English translation carried by The Daily Telegraph.

More from World

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu asked US Secretary of Commerce for waivers on AI chip restrictions Netanyahu vows to ensure Trump's 'Gaza vision becomes a reality' after meeting with Rubio in Jerusalem

In the same interview, Netanyahu rejected that Palestinian statehood after the October 7 attack of Hamas would be a "huge victory" to terrorism and a “huge defeat” of Israel.

“There was a Palestinian state. They called it Gaza. Hamas-led Gaza was a Palestinian state and look what we got – the biggest massacre since the Holocaust. And to establish a Palestinian state after October 7 is a huge reward for terrorism. A huge victory not only for Hamas [but also for] Iran. And a huge defeat for us and our partners,” said Netanyahu.

In yet another rejection of the Saudi demand, Netanyahu said that Israel “must be very strong and it must bypass the Palestinian veto to go out into the Arab world”.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

‘The cries of this widow will echo’: In first public remarks, Erika Kirk warns Charlie’s killers they’ve ‘unleashed a fire’

Trump urges Nato to back sanctions on Russia, calls for 50–100% tariffs on China

Within hours of Trump announcing the plan to annex Gaza, Saudi Arabia issued a remarkably quick and strong statement that rejected Trump’s position on Gaza and claim that he had made about Saudi’s position on Gaza. In a press conference in which Trump announced he would annex Gaza, he also said that Saudi Arabia has not demanded Palestinians statehood as the basis of the normalisation deal with Israel.

In the statement, Saudi Arabia categorically said there would not be any deal without the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and that Saudi Arabia remains “firm, unwavering” in the commitment to Palestinian statehood.

To outline the Saudi position on the issue, the statement referred to a speech by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi ruler, to the government’s main advisory body in which he said that “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and that the Kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that”.

In a direct rejection of Trump’s idea of settling Palestinians outside of Gaza, the Saudi statement stressed the “previously announced categorical rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands, or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land”.

Following Trump and Netanyahu’s newfound position on Gaza, which essentially kills the two-state solution, Egypt announced on Sunday that it will host an emergency summit of Arab nations on February 27. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II will lead the summit called the request of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, West Bank.

Egypt said that the summit was was called after “extensive consultations by Egypt at the highest levels with Arab countries in recent days, including Palestine, which requested the summit, to address the latest serious developments regarding the Palestinian cause”, as per The Telegraph.