MICHAEL RATNEY (FILE)
RIYADH: While Israel has so far killed over 40000 people in Gaza and still refuses to agree on a ceasefire, a US diplomat has revealed that his country and Saudi Arabia were near finalizing a historic pact regarding the kingdom’s relations with the Zionist state.
According to media reports, US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney in an interview said that main points of the pact between his country and Riyadh had almost been finalized. This pact would lead to strategic partnership and a defence agreement between the two countries, he added.
The main point of the agreement between the US and Saudi Arabia is to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. After recognition of Israel by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the two countries would also promote their relations in different sectors such as trade and economy.
The recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia is crucial in the sense that most of the Islamic countries including Pakistan do not have diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. It is expected that if Saudi Arabia normalizes its relations with Israel, other Muslim countries would follow suit and some of them could be coerced into doing the same.
However, it would lead to strong reaction and anger among the people of Islamic countries because it would be unacceptable for them to see Saudi Arabia entering into an agreement and recognizing Israel at a time when the latter was killing innocent people and refusing to stop the war in Gaza which started in October last year.
Moreover, without resolving the issue of Palestine, including creating a separate state for the people, there would be no peace in the Middle East.
It’s not clear if Saudi Arabia would normalize its ties with Israel after getting an assurance from the US that Tel Aviv would accept the right of the Palestinians to have their own independent state?
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