Saudi Arabia's top diplomat has announced the launch of a new initiative to establish a Palestinian state and garner support for the implementation of a two-state solution after decades of international efforts failed, leading the region to the brink of an all-out war, reports Al-Arabiya.
The Global Alliance for the Implementation of the two-state solution was unveiled during Prince Faisal bin Farhan's speech at a meeting that included the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Norway.
Prince Faisal said the first meeting will be held in Riyadh. The EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said the first follow-up meetings would also be held in Riyadh and Brussels.
Prince Faisal added that the initiative was a joint Arab and European effort. "We will make every effort to achieve a reliable and irreversible plan for just and comprehensive peace," he said.
The Saudi foreign minister reaffirmed the need to move collectively to make decisions that will lead to tangible results towards an immediate ceasefire and implementing a two-state solution, "the foremost of which should be an independent Palestinian state."
Israel has been bombarding Gaza and reduced it to rubble since it began a response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed close to 1,200 people. Hamas captured hundreds of hostages, some of which have been killed, and others remain held in Gaza.
But Prince Faisal said the ongoing war has resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe due to Israeli as well as Israeli crimes in the West Bank, Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim and Christian holy sites.
Prince Faisal also stressed that the right to self-defense does not justify the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, forced displacement, using starvation as a tool of war, incitement, dehumanization and systematic torture to include sexual violence and other documented crimes by the Israeli military.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said it would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
However, Israel has shown no interest in doing so. An overwhelming majority of the Knesset voted against a two-state solution, while the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consistently rejects committing to do so.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week said that Riyadh would not recognize Israel without a Palestinian state and strongly condemned the "crimes of the Israeli occupation" against the Palestinian people.
"The Kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the Kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that," MBS said during a speech to the advisory Shura Council.
