Saudi Arabia interested in Israel normalisation deal after war

Foreign policy is always about power, end of story.

America has been trying to remove itself from the ME, or at least significantly shrink it's footprint, without leaving a power vacuum for Iran to fill. The plan was to have KSA and Israel fill that void instead, along with Turkey.

Morality and principles only directly impact foreign policy decisions if they impact the domestic political calculus. For example, if MBS believed moving forward with the Israeli partnership would result in him losing power.

This is not reflective of my own feelings or values. It's just a neutral observation and assessment of the situation.

I guess both sides really don't like Yemen lol

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UK says it is interested in normalising relations with Israel after the war in Gaza, but that any deal must lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Prince Khalid bin Bandar told the BBC a pact was "close" when the the kingdom paused US-brokered talks after Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel on 7 October.

The public position of Palestinian leaders is that they will reject outright a deal if it does not leave them with a state, but earlier that month officials had said they were privately demanding a cash boost and more control of land in the occupied West Bank in return for engaging with the US-backed Saudi-Israel process.

Saudi officials reportedly asked the US to pause the three-way discussions a few days after the 7 October attacks, in which about 1,300 people were killed and 240 others taken hostage by hundreds of Hamas gunmen who infiltrated southern Israeli communities from Gaza.

Asked if Saudi Arabia saw Hamas - which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, UK and other Western countries - as part of that future Palestinian state, Prince Khalid said it "requires a lot of thought".

Prince Khalid also warned that there was a risk of radicalisation as a result of the war, which has not only left many thousands of civilians dead in Gaza but also caused widespread devastation and a deep humanitarian crisis.

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