US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state following talks he held in Saudi Arabia, during which Riyadh insisted on linking normalisation to peace with the Palestinians. The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said in a press statement that normalisation with Israel “is in the interest of the region, but without peace with the Palestinians, any normalisation with Israel will have limited benefit, and we must focus on reaching a path that provides peace, justice and dignity for the Palestinians.” At the end of his visit to Saudi Arabia, Blinken held telephone conversations with Netanyahu to discuss “deepening Israel’s integration into the Middle East through normalisation with countries in the region,” according to US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. Miller said that Blinken discussed the necessity of fulfilling the pledges made in regional meetings held in Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh to avoid measures that undermine the prospects for a two-state solution, referring to talks held earlier in the year in Jordan and Egypt that brought together Israeli, Palestinian and American officials.

Source: Jordan News Agency