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A Saudi Arabian diplomat has warned Israel against a war in Lebanon, insisting that the kingdom will not normalise relations without justice for the Palestinian people.
Israel and Hezbollah have both claimed they are ready to go to war this week, raising fears of a regional spillover of the Israel-Gaza war, which is entering its ninth month.
Prince Khaled bin Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UK, called on Israel and the international community to “recognise the danger that lies ahead”.
“A regional conflict will not remain regional, it will become international very quickly,” he said at the Chatham House London conference on Thursday.
The only way forward is for Israel to end its military campaign in Gaza. “If this continues along this path, it is going is much worse than what is happening on the ground today,” he said.
The US has sought to broker a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, as a step towards ending the conflict.
Although the kingdom was seeking normalisation, it would continue to reject any proposal that did not involve the recognition of a Palestinian state along 1967 borders.
“Normalisation is important to Saudi Arabia and to anyone in the region who is sensible,” he said.
“We will not normalise at the cost of the Palestinian people. We recognise a Palestinian state, it's not about creating one, we believe it already exists.”
Israel and regional players would all need to make “sacrifices”, he added.
This included a better cultural integration of Israel in the Arab world – the onus of which he said lied on Israel. “Israel shouldn’t be playing football in Europe, it should be playing football in the Middle East. It shouldn’t be doing cultural events in Europe, it should be doing them in the Middle East.”
“It’s a choice that Israel must make for itself,” he added.
The Palestinian issue was a “thorn in the lion’s paw” and it was up to the region to resolve it. “What often escapes us is responsibility … the responsibility that the people in the region have to find a solution,” he said.
“The Arab Israeli conflict affects the world in a way that other conflicts don’t, whether you like it or not, whether its fair or not, that’s irrelevant.”
His words echoed those of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who called on the international community to recognise the State of Palestine earlier this week, and to implement recent UN Security Council resolutions advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
