Saudi Arabia reiterated to the US that the kingdom’s position remains that it will not recognize Israel or establish diplomatic relations with it until a Palestinian state is established and recognized on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and the Israeli “offensive” stops. » in the Gaza Strip, says a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was made public in the early hours of the morning.

Yesterday Tuesday, the spokesman for the National Security Council of the US presidency, John Kirby, assured reporters during a press conference at the White House that the administration of President Joe Biden received a “positive” response from the governments of the two key partners of Washington to continue of the negotiations between them for the normalization of their relations.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry made it clear that it issued the statement in response to Mr Kerby’s statement.

Fermentation to restore diplomatic relations between the kingdom and the Jewish state has intensified since 2020, when Riyadh tacitly acquiesced to the decision of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to recognize Israel.

But the plan to normalize relations, strongly supported by Washington, has been on ice since October, when the Israel-Hamas war broke out, sources familiar with Riyadh’s position told Reuters.