Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has accused Israel of carrying out “collective genocide” in Gaza, in some of his strongest criticism of the country since the war began last year.
During a gathering of leaders of Islamic nations hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Monday, the country’s de facto leader said: “The Kingdom reiterates its condemnation and absolute refusal of the collective genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people.”
More than 43,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its attacks on the enclave last year. On Tuesday, at least 30 people were killed in Gaza city and northern Gaza, with many more still under the rubble, according to the spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, Mahmoud Basal. CNN has asked the Israeli military for comment.
Last year the kingdom was in the process of negotiating a historic normalization agreement with Israel but recently said that was “off the table” without Palestinian statehood, a demand rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Saudi crown prince, widely known by his initials MBS, also defended Iran – a stark contrast to his comments in 2017 comparing the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Adolf Hitler.
MBS urged the international community to “compel Israel to respect Iran’s sovereignty and not to attack (Iranian) territories.” Riyadh and Tehran repaired ties last year after decades of animosity over regional influence.
With no solution in sight for the regional conflicts and amid a stalled normalization process with Israel, Saudi Arabia has changed its messaging over the past year from condemnations to publicly accusing Israel of genocide while urging more international protection for Iran.
Iran sent its First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref to Monday’s Riyadh conference, who in his speech mourned the deaths of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar. Saudi Arabia strongly opposes Iran-backed militias such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
Others attending the high-level meeting included Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who were also at the meeting, remain embroiled in an ongoing conflict over Turkey’s military operations in northern Syria and its support for rebel groups.
The stated goal of Monday’s meeting was “unifying positions” and “exerting pressure” on the international community to take steps to end the “ongoing attacks and establish lasting peace,” in the region, Saudi’s governmental state agency said.
Unifying in the wake of the US election
Experts say MBS gathered regional allies and old foes to exhibit his strength in unifying Islamic nations ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump assuming office.
Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump had not specified how he would approach the Israel-Hamas war, or how his policies would differ from those of his predecessor Joe Biden. In April, Trump said that Israel needs to “finish what they started” and “get it over with fast,” noting that it was “losing the PR war” because of the images coming out of Gaza.
But the incoming US president would likely seek to reinstate the sanctions regimes on Tehran to “isolate Iran diplomatically” and “weaken it economically,” Brian Hook, who was Trump’s Iran envoy during his first administration, told CNN’s Becky Anderson last week.
Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who sources say is likely to be his selection for secretary of state, have hardline policies on Iran.
“He has a lot of friendships in the region with leaders. Those friendships, I think, are only going to deepen and I think the cooperation and the bonds of friendship, security and commerce are all going to be much better in the coming years,” Hook said of Trump.
Saudi Arabia, which had helped Trump in his policy of Iranian containment during his first term, is wary this time of supporting a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, due to skepticism of US willingness to protect the kingdom in the face of an Iranian attack, analysts say.
Instead, the kingdom has been expanding its relationship with Iran. This week, MBS spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, welcomed his vice president in Riyadh and dispatched the Saudi army chief of staff to Tehran for meetings with his Iranian counterpart.
The kingdom is trying to make sure it’s staying out of any war that involves the US, Israel and Iran because of domestic anger against Israel from their own populations but also because of the effectiveness of Iranian ballistic missiles, executive vice president of the Washington, DC-based Quincy Institute Trita Parsi said.
There are several political risks to normalizing relations with Israel today, said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “With normalization Saudi Arabia recognizes that it will be risking possible internal political dissent, a regional Arab leadership role and a global Islamic leadership role that is very contested,” Ibish said.
“The message from Riyadh is we want to play ball, but you have to give us something, and not just on Palestine, on Iran too … we’re not going to do a deal with the Israelis if you don’t make it worth our while,” Ibish said.
