FALCON POWERS – The American magazine “The Atlantic” revealed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman informed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting in January of this year in Saudi Arabia that the Palestinian issue does not personally concern him.
According to the report, Bin Salman clarified to Blinken that while this issue is indeed important for his people, he demands progress on it as a condition for normalizing relations with Israel.
As reported by “The Atlantic,” Bin Salman explained to Blinken the rationale behind his demand for an Israeli commitment to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The 38-year-old de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia stated, “70% of my population is younger than me,” adding that “most of them have not known about the Palestinian issue, and they are learning about it for the first time in this conflict. It’s a significant problem. Do I personally care about the Palestinian issue? No, but for my people, it is important.”
According to the magazine’s report, Blinken asked Bin Salman what Israel needs to do to move forward with the normalization agreement. Bin Salman responded that the most important thing for him is “calm” in Gaza.
It was also reported that Blinken inquired whether the Saudis could accept repeated incursions and airstrikes by the Israeli army inside the Gaza Strip to thwart the terrorist infrastructure there. Bin Salman replied, “They can come back after six months, after a year, but not at the moment we sign the normalization agreement.”
“The Atlantic” confirms that according to a Saudi source, Bin Salman’s description of these matters “is not accurate,” but there was no explicit denial of the claim that the Palestinian issue does not personally concern him.
