‘No Palestinian state, no normalization': Prince Turki Al-Faisal on Saudi-Israel relations
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
35 minutes ago
- Arab News
Pakistan, Arab, Muslim nations condemn Netanyahu's ‘Greater Israel' remark
ISLAMABAD: Arab Gulf countries and Muslim nations, including Pakistan, have condemned statements about a 'Greater Israel' that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to have made in the wake of pronouncements by his far-right allies to annex Palestinian territories. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to expand settlement building in the occupied West Bank to 'bury the idea of a Palestinian state.' Netanyahu said in a recent interview he felt 'very much' connected to the vision of 'Greater Israel,' describing it as a 'historic and spiritual mission.' The comments have triggered widespread outrage across the Arab and Muslim world in recent days and have been denounced by several nations, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Pakistan, as well as the Palestinian Authority. Pakistan's foreign office said the remarks showed Israel's intent to cement its occupation and disregard peace efforts, urging the international community to act swiftly to halt further regional destabilization and end crimes against Palestinians. 'Pakistan strongly condemns and rejects recent statements made by the Israeli Occupying power, alluding to the creation of so-called 'Greater Israel,' and its designs aimed at the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza,' the foreign office said in a statement. Reiterating Islamabad's long-standing position, the foreign office reaffirmed Pakistan's support for the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state of Palestine, based on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. In a joint statement on Saturday, the foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim nations said the pronouncements by Netanyahu and his ministers were 'a blatant and dangerous violation' of international law. 'They also constitute a direct threat to Arab national security, to the sovereignty of states, and to regional and international peace and security,' said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, or SPA. The signatories include the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It also included the secretaries-general of the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The ministers stressed that 'while their states reaffirm their respect for international legitimacy and the Charter of the United Nations, particularly Article 2, paragraph 4, which prohibits the use of force or the threat thereof, they will adopt all policies and measures that preserve peace, in a manner that serves the interests of all states and peoples in achieving security, stability, and development, away from illusions of domination and the imposition of power by force.' The ministers pushed back against Israeli Minister Smotrich's approval of the settlement plan in the 'E1' area in the West Bank, along with his 'radical, racist' statements rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state. European nations, alarmed by the plan, have also called on the Israeli government to stop, with Germany warning that the 'E1' settlement and the expansion of Maale Adumim would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank by splitting it in half and cutting the area off from East Jerusalem. The joint statement said Israel's plan would constitute a 'blatant violation of international law and a flagrant assault on the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to realize their independent, sovereign state on the lines of 4 June 1967, with Occupied Jerusalem as its capital.' They warned Israel's blatant disregard for the rights of Palestinians and its neighbors and the international community as a whole 'directly fuel cycles of violence and conflict and undermine prospects for achieving just and comprehensive peace in the region.' The ministers 'reiterated their rejection and condemnation of Israel's crimes of aggression, genocide, and ethnic cleansing' and reaffirmed the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and 'ensuring unconditional humanitarian access to end the policy of systematic starvation that Israel is pursuing as a weapon of genocide.' Since Oct. 2023, Israel has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to data from Gaza's Health Ministry. In late July 2025, the ministry reported that at least 18,500 children and 9,800 women have been killed by Israel. Not contented with the almost total destruction it has caused in Gaza, Israel has also continued to block international humanitarian agencies from delivering food to starving refugees.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Zelenskyy says will meet Trump in Washington, ready for cooperation
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy will head to Washington on Monday to discuss 'ending the killing and the war' with US President Donald Trump, he announced Saturday. Zelenskyy said so after holding a call with Trump, during which the US leader informed him about the 'main points' of his talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska. 'On Monday, I will meet with President Trump in Washington, D.C., to discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war,' Zelenskyy said. 'I am grateful for the invitation.' Zelenskyy said he had a 'long and substantive conversation with Trump', which began as a one-on-one talk, before being joined by European leaders. The Washington meeting is set to take place three days after Trump's talks with Putin in Alaska ended with no ceasefire announcement or apparent breakthrough to end Moscow's more than three-year-long invasion. The day after the US-Russia summit, Zelenskyy called for Kyiv's European allies to be involved at 'every stage' of talks. The Ukrainian leader said that Kyiv is ready for constructive cooperation and supports trilateral meeting of leaders of US, Ukraine and Russia. 'Ukraine reaffirms its readiness to work with maximum effort to achieve peace,' Zelenskyy said on X social network. 'We support President Trump's proposal for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the USA, and Russia. Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,' he added.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Russian politicians hail Putin-Trump summit as victory for Moscow
In the early hours of Saturday morning following a summit in Alaska between the leaders of Russia and the United States, senior politicians in Moscow were quick to trumpet the meeting as a win for Russia and its narrative of the war in Ukraine. 'The meeting in Alaska confirmed Russia's desire for peace, long-term and fair,' said Andrei Klishas, a senior lawmaker from President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. He portrayed the summit as a coup for Russia and a loss for Ukraine and its European allies, who have been pushing for an unconditional ceasefire. 'The tasks of the SMO will be accomplished either by military or diplomatic means,' Klishas wrote, using the acronym for Special Military Operation, the Kremlin's term for the war. 'A new architecture for European and international security is on the agenda, and everyone must accept it.' The highly-anticipated summit on Friday in Anchorage yielded no agreement to resolve or pause the conflict, now in its fourth year, although both Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump described the talks as productive. The two men met for nearly three hours before giving a brief media appearance and boarding separate planes home. Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president known for his hawkish views, said the summit proved that it was possible to hold talks without conditions - as Moscow has insisted - while the fighting in Ukraine rages on. Russia's flagship Channel One morning state news bulletin on Saturday stressed the pageantry around the summit, its global profile, and the warm welcome extended to Putin, who had been ostracized by Western leaders since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 'The Red carpet, handshakes and footage and photographs that are in all global publications and TV channels,' it said, saying it was the first time that Trump had met a visiting leader off their plane at the airport. Its correspondent in Alaska said the two leaders had obviously agreed about a lot of things, but did not say what those things were. 'The very fact of the meeting in Alaska, its tone, and its outcome represent a significant and joint success for both presidents, each of whom made a tremendous personal contribution to achieving the best possible result at this time,' Konstantin Kosachyov, a chair of the foreign affairs committee of Russia's upper house of parliament, wrote on Telegram. Other commentators struck a sourer tone. Writing for War Gonzo, a pro-war Telegram channel with over 800,000 subscribers, one blogger praised Putin's remarks as 'quite strong', but added that the meeting had delivered no visible outcomes beyond the mere fact that it took place. 'What will happen next? If our strikes on Ukrainian regime targets resume, Trump will have a reason to declare once again that 'Putin is talking nonsense' and to impose sanctions and interrupt the negotiation process that has begun,' wrote the blogger, Old Miner.
