Saudi Arabia crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has declared that the Jewish people has a right to its own land. This is the first time that a senior Saudi figure has expressed such sentiments. In an interview in "Atlantic" magazine, the Saudi heir to the throne told Jeffrey Goldberg that peace between Israel and the Palestinians would be a boost for the joint interests for Israel and the Gulf states.
When asked whether he believed that the Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their ancestral homeland, he said: "I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation. I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land. But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations."
Goldberg: You have no religious-based objection to the existence of Israel?
"We have religious concerns about the fate of the holy mosque in Jerusalem and about the rights of the Palestinian people. This is what we have. We don’t have any objection against any other people."
Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a place that has produced a lot of anti-Semitic propaganda. Do you think you have a problem with anti-Semitism in your country?
"Our country doesn’t have a problem with Jews. Our Prophet Muhammad married a Jewish woman. Not just a friend - he married her. Our prophet, his neighbors were Jewish. You will find a lot of Jews in Saudi Arabia coming from America, coming from Europe. There are no problems between Christian and Muslims and Jews. We have problems like you would find anywhere in the world, among some people. But the normal sort of problems."
Do you think Iran is bringing you and Israel together? Without Iran, could you imagine a situation in which you had other interests in common with Israel?
"Israel is a big economy compared to their size and it’s a growing economy, and of course there are a lot of interests we share with Israel and if there is peace, there would be a lot of interest between Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and countries like Egypt and Jordan."
Much of the interview is devoted to the Saudi crown prince's hostility to Iran who he described as part of the triangle of evil together with the Muslim Brotherhood and the ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorist groups. He described the Iranian leadership as worse than Hitler.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 3, 2018
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