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Saudi Prince: Normalization with Israel grows ‘closer every day’

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The prince stressed that major concessions to the Palestinians would be necessary for the peace deal.

By World Israel News Staff

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince and the de facto ruler of the Gulf Kingdom, Mohammed bin Salman, confirmed that Riyadh and Jerusalem are nearing a historic peace deal, brokered by the U.S.

“Every day we get closer” to normalizing relations with Israel, the crown prince told Fox News in a TV interview broadcast on Wednesday evening.

However, bin Salman stressed that no agreement would come to fruition until Israel agrees to grant major concessions to the Palestinians.

“For us, the Palestinian issue is very important. We need to solve that part,” he said.

“We have a good negotiation strategy till now,” he continued.

“We got to see where we go. We hope that [we] will reach a place that will ease the life of the Palestinians and get Israel as a player in the Middle East.”

Notably, bin Salman’s remarks came after numerous reports that Saudi Arabia had frozen negotiations for a normalization deal with Israel, over concerns that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition partners would agree to benefits for the Palestinians as a condition of the agreement.

Also on Wednesday, Netanyahu met with President Joe Biden at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

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In a joint conference after the meeting, Netanyahu told Biden that “under your leadership… we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

Netanyahu added that “such a peace would go a long way first to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”

In what appeared to be a warning to Netanyahu earlier on Wednesday, dozens of members of his Likud party signed an open letter stating that they would only agree to such a deal if the conditions were “peace for peace,” and did not involve giving up land in Judea and Samaria to Palestinians.

Hebrew-language media reported on Thursday morning that Netanyahu had instructed Israeli diplomats and negotiators to concede to a Saudi request for a civilian nuclear program in exchange for the deal.