On Thursday evening, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine the prospects for the establishment of a Palestinian state, following talks he held in Saudi Arabia, during which Riyadh stressed linking normalization to peace with the Palestinians.

At the end of his visit to Saudi Arabia, Blinken held telephone conversations with Netanyahu to discuss “deepening Israel’s integration into the Middle East through normalization with countries in the region,” according to US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Miller said that Blinken “discussed the necessity of fulfilling the pledges made in regional meetings held in Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh to avoid measures that undermine the prospects for a two-state solution,” referring to talks held earlier in the year 2023 in Jordan and Egypt that brought together Israeli officials. Palestinians and Americans.

And the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, indicated in a press statement that normalization with Israel “is in the interest of the region, but without peace with the Palestinians, any normalization with Israel will have limited benefit, and we must focus on reaching a path that provides peace, justice and dignity for the Palestinians.”

-(Petra)