Greenblatt: Saudi Arabia on ‘path to peace’ with ‘Israel’

Saudi Arabia is on a path to peace with Israel, but it needs to be given space to move at its own pace, former White House Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt told Jewish News Syndicate(JNS) in an exclusive interview.

“These deals are complex and take a great deal of time, but any one thing could spark the right opportunity for a deal to actually be announced and quickly consummated, as we have seen,” said Greenblatt.

Answering the question of “will the current administration’s policies push Saudi Arabia and Israel closer”, Greenblatt said that ‘Israel’ should continue to do what it is doing.

“Israel should walk tall and proud, and over time, more and more countries will realize that being Israel’s ally is a big benefit for so many reasons,” he said.

He added, “I think Saudi Arabia will get there, but we have to be patient and give Saudi Arabia the space it needs.”

“Pressure from any party, including the U.S., will not yield a peace deal that is worth much or long-lasting. Peace will come when everyone is ready for it, for the right reasons. Encouragement is important, but pressure is not worthwhile.”

However, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, on Friday said his country has not moved with regard to its position on normalizing ties with the occupation state, despite diplomatic deals by its close allies and neighbours.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News, al-Jubeir said that that the Saudi position has not changed and it still supports the Arab Peace Initiative, which offers normalization in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state.

He said the recent normalization deals by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan were “sovereign decisions,” but if they led to a change in Israeli policies towards Palestinians “then there may be some benefit in it”.

“But as far as the kingdom is concerned, our position remains that normalization can only come if there’s an agreement on peace,” said Jubeir.

“We want a two-state solution based on the Arab Peace Initiative and the relevant United Nations resolutions where we have a Palestinian state and living side by side in peace and security. That remains our position.”

Nevertheless, on Sunday Netanyahu played up warming ties between Jerusalem and Riyadh ahead of Tuesday’s election.

“We will have direct flights for Muslim Israeli pilgrims from Tel Aviv to Mecca,” he claimed in an interview with Army Radio.

Last week Netanyahu told the Ynet website that there were “four more peace agreements” on the way, after Israel last year reached normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates Kuwait, Sudan and Morocco.

Netanyahu did not name the countries but later the same day Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen told Radio 100FM that the countries nearest to signing deals were Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Niger.

Regarding the latest spat between the occupation state and Jordan, and the report that Jordan blocked its airspace to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Greenblatt said he is not sure which news reports are accurate and that he doesn’t have the inside scoop on what actually happened.

However, he said, “Jordan is not only an important ally of the U.S., it is an important neighbor to Israel.”

Greenblatt also said that one of the biggest misconceptions he observed in Washington circles and the foreign-policy establishment regarding the overall situation in the Middle East is that that “the Arab-Israeli conflict can only be solved when solving the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”

“Perhaps that was true years ago. Clearly, it is no longer true for some countries, and hopefully, for many others. The conflicts are tied together, but can be broken apart and solved separately,” he said.