Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that Israel is “at the cusp” of a historic breakthrough leading to a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia.
He struck an optimistic tone throughout his roughly 25-minute address, displaying contrasting maps showing Israel’s isolation at the time of its creation in 1948 and the six countries that have normalized relations with it, including four that did so in 2020 in the so-called Abraham Accords.
“There’s no question the Abraham Accords heralded the dawn of a new age of peace. But I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough, a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” Netanyahu said.
“Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East,” he added.
There are several obstacles in the way of such an agreement, including the Saudis’ demand for progress in the creation of a Palestinian state, a hard sell for Netanyahu’s government, the most hawkish in Israel’s history. The Saudis also seek a defense pact with the United States and want help building their own civilian nuclear program.
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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview with Fox News this week that the two sides are getting closer to an agreement, without providing much detail about the U.S.-led negotiations. He declined to specify what precisely the Saudis are seeking for the Palestinians.
MBS told Fox’s Special Report programme that the Palestinian issue was “very important” to Riyadh. “We need to solve that part,” he said when asked what it would take to get a normalisation agreement.
“We got to see where we go. We hope that will reach a place, that it will ease the life of the Palestinians, get Israel as a player in the Middle East,” he said, speaking in English.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed the General Assembly on Thursday, made no direct reference to efforts to reach a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. But he reiterated the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has only worsened since the Abraham Accords were signed.
“Those who think that peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full and legitimate national rights are mistaken,” Abbas said, speaking in Arabic.
Abbas used most of his UN address to blast Israel, accusing it of “entrenching apartheid.”
“This occupation violates the principles of international law and international legitimacy,” said Abbas, calling on the UN to implement its resolutions and usher in the birth of a fully independent Palestinian state.
He demanded an end to Israel’s decades-old military rule of the West Bank, and an independent Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the pre-1967 lines, and with the refugee issue resolved in accordance with UN resolutions.
He called the current Israeli government “racist and right-wing,” accusing it of stealing money and resources and of holding the bodies of 600 Palestinian “martyrs.”
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