Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced a public coup in the Saudi position on Israel. He certainly does not view Tel Aviv as an enemy but a potential ally.
Mohammed bin Salman said that the kingdom views Israel as a “potential ally”.
In his first interview with a foreign media outlet in two years, the Saudi crown prince’s comments came in response to a question in an interview with the Atlantic magazine.
In response to a question, “if Saudi Arabia would follow the example of some Arab countries in the matter of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel”, Prince Mohammed bin Salman said: “We hope that the problem between the Israelis and the Palestinians will be resolved.”
He added, “We do not view Israel as an enemy, but rather as a potential ally in the many interests that we can pursue together.”
However, the Saudi crown prince added, “But some issues must be resolved before reaching that.”
On Saudi Arabia’s relations with Iran, the Crown Prince said: “In four months, we have had discussions, and we have heard many statements from Iranian leaders, which were welcome to us in Saudi Arabia, and we will continue the details of these discussions, and I hope we will reach a position that is good for both of us.”
When bin Salman was asked whether he would prefer a nuclear agreement or not, he said: “I think any country in the world that has nuclear bombs is dangerous… so we do not want to see that, and we also do not want to see a weak nuclear deal, because it will eventually lead to the same result.”
Regarding US President Joe Biden’s position on Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul, the crown prince said: “This matter is up to him (Biden), and it is up to him to think about America’s interests, so let him do that.”
The Atlantic magazine commented on the interview with bin Salman that the crown prince’s main request from the world, especially America, is the usual request from tyrants who misbehave; It is to stay away from its internal politics.
The magazine highlighted that, “It was not the articles of the assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi to stop bin Salman, but his killing was a warning about the personality of the man who will run the kingdom for the next half century, and it is important to worry about the sick mentality of this man.”
The magazine added, “It seems that bin Salman had a hypothetical targeting list ready to be executed, to assassinate 1,000 people, and he only confirms that Khashoggi’s killing was a huge and unprofessional mistake.”
Bin Salman stated, “If I wanted to send a squad to kill, he would choose a target more valuable than Khashoggi, and more efficient killers, and Khashoggi would not even be among the top 1,000 people on the list.”
The magazine indicated that the difficult questions caused bin Salman to move quickly, and his voice was vibrating at a higher frequency, and every minute or two he had a strange spasm of movement; Quickly tilting his head back, followed by swallowing his saliva, a strange gesture on his lips.