Former director of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki Bin Faisal Al Saud. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
Senior member of the Saudi royal family, who led the kingdom’s intelligence agency for over 20 years, backs International Criminal Court’s effort to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
By World Israel News Staff
A prominent member of the Saudi royal family accused Israel of genocide over the weekend, and expressed hope that the International Criminal Court would succeed in securing the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Turki al Faisal, son of the late King Faisal, spoke at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain Saturday, urging President-elect Donald Trump to bring peace to the Middle East.
“Friendly countries in the region are hoping that Mr. Trump pursues what he started before, to bring peace with capital letters to the Middle East,” al Faisal said.
“It is time for America, under your presidency, to change the course of this troubled region.”
But al Faisal, who served as director-general of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency – the country’s central intel agency for 22 years before stepping down after 9/11 – also took aim at Israel, accusing the Jewish state of genocide and apartheid, and appearing to endorse the International Criminal Court’s efforts to secure the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Israel today, according to international human rights groups, is not only an apartheid colonial state, but it is also a genocidal one,” al Faisal said. “It is committing genocide on the people of Gaza.”
“It’s about time for the world to… take the necessary steps to bring those who are charged by the International Criminal Court to justice.”
Riyadh, which had mulled normalizing relations with Israel prior to the Hamas invasion of October 7th, has voiced increasingly harsh rhetoric towards Israel and its war against the Islamist terror group.
In November, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the oil-rich kingdom’s de facto ruler, accused Israel of genocide at an Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit hosted by Riyadh.
During the summit, bin Salman said his kingdom condemned the “genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people, which has claimed the lives of 150,000 martyrs, wounded and missing, most of whom are women and children.”
“We affirm that Israel’s continued crimes against innocent people,” bin Salman continued.
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