Riyadh's appointment of envoy to Palestine 'significant'

Analysts say the move may be a trade-off amid talk of Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel

Saudi Arabia's appointment of its first envoy to Palestine is seen as significant, amid widespread Western media reports that a United States-brokered, Israel-Saudi deal to normalize their relations could be on the horizon.

However, the move also shows the lack of collective strategy among countries in the Middle East when it comes to engaging with Israel in a manner that would respect Palestinian rights, analysts said.

Saudi Arabia on Aug 12 named Naif bin Bandar Al-Sudairi as its first ambassador to Palestine. During a meeting at the Embassy of Palestine in Jordan, Majdi al-Khalidi, Palestinian presidential advisor for diplomatic affairs, received a copy of Al-Sudairi's credentials as a non-resident ambassador to Palestine. Al-Sudairi will also serve as consul general in Jerusalem.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye on Aug 14 told a weekly cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah that Riyadh's decision "carries important political connotations in confronting the Israeli occupation's measures against the Palestinians", according to a report by Xinhua News Agency.

"The timing of Saudi Arabia's appointment of its first ambassador to Palestine and the appointment of its ambassador as consul general to deal with Palestinian affairs in Jerusalem is very significant," Haydar Oruc, a former researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Turkiye, told China Daily.

Oruc said the fact that the Saudi appointment came after reports of possible Israel-Saudi normalization "led us to believe that this issue was discussed between Saudi Arabia and the US", and that this step "was taken after some guarantees were received".

Farhan Mujahid Chak, visiting faculty at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, said it was "part of giving a little and taking a lot".

"To counter some of the negative publicity and backlash that would arise because of the quite open discussions around Saudi-Israeli normalization, this is an attempt to kind of throw people off track… to have people assume that it is not what it seems to be because of Saudi Arabia's appointing an envoy to Palestine," Chak told China Daily.

Nonetheless, he said, in the broader, overall strategy, there is a progressive movement forward that is legitimizing Saudi-Israeli normalization "to the detriment of long-term peace in the region and also to the detriment of Palestinian rights".

But Chak added that this is "the fine balancing act" that countries in the region have to play, since they "do not have a collective strategy to engage with the state of Israel" in a manner in which would respect Palestinian rights, move the peace process forward, and "compel the state of Israel to commit to peace".

"There is no coordination between the different stakeholders. This is why no matter what happens, (Saudi-Israel normalization) is unlikely to achieve the desired results," said Chak.

On the Israeli side, Oruc from Turkiye noted that only Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had made a statement saying that Israel would not allow the opening of a Saudi consulate in Jerusalem, but "neither Netanyahu nor other coalition partners showed the extreme reactions expected of them".

Cohen told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM on Aug 13 that Al-Sudairi, the Saudi envoy, could meet representatives of the Palestinian Authority, but would have no fixed presence.

Cohen also said that the Saudis "want to deliver a message to the Palestinians that they have not forgotten them".

However, Israel would not allow the opening of a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem. "This does not agree with our vision," Cohen said.

Israel considers Jerusalem to be its capital, despite the United Nations and other world powers not recognizing it as such.

Oruc said: "If there is to be Saudi-Israeli normalization, it will certainly come at a price for Israel. The most rational option is to accept the two-state peace plan. Otherwise, Israel is likely to have problems both with the US administration and with the Arab states in the region with which it has previously signed normalization agreements."

In September 2020, Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords which normalized relations with Israel.

"Since the ambassador appointed by Saudi Arabia is the current Jordanian ambassador, it can be said that Jordan is also involved in this process. Therefore, Israel's opposition to such an agreement, despite all the actors involved, would create a situation that could leave it so isolated for the first time since the last Arab-Israeli war," said Oruc.

"Israel should be very careful, and it would be appropriate for some extremists in the current government to moderate their rhetoric and play a constructive role so as not to be seen as the party blocking a possible agreement (between Saudi Arabia and Israel)," he added.

jan@chinadailyapac.com