Saudi Arabia does not endorse the United Arab Emirates' diplomatic recognition of Israel

Saudi Arabia will not in principle support the formal recognition of the State of Israel as such by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but does put forward a "commitment to peace as a strategic option based on Arab peace initiatives". 

This diplomatic line was expressed by Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, Saudi Foreign Minister, during a press conference in Berlin.

Since the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel on 13 August, Saudi Arabia has remained silent, but the Saudi foreign minister has drawn a line that is somewhat different from the strategy of the Emirates. Although Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud did acknowledge that the agreement sealed by the UAE and Israel "could be seen as positive", no doubt in the sense that, at least according to the Emirate's version, it serves to stop the official annexation of the West Bank in the face of settlements by Jewish settlers. The latter issue was later partially denied by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Hebrew Prime Minister.  

Saudi Arabia considers "Israel's unilateral policies of annexation and construction of illegitimate settlements and to the detriment of the two-state solution," said Faisal bin Farhan, quoted by Arab News. Meanwhile, according to Al-Arabiya, the former foreign minister and current minister of state in the same ministry, Adel al-Jubeir, told the press that "peace must be achieved with the Palestinians" on the basis of international agreements as a condition for any normalisation of relations with Israel. "Once that is achieved, anything is possible," he added. To complete the picture, in the words of Bin Farhan: if that is achieved, it is possible for "all countries in the region to have diplomatic relations with Israel".

The Arab peace initiative, sponsored by Saudi Arabia in 2002, involves recognition of the Jewish state in exchange for Israel's withdrawal to the 1967 borders, the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a solution for the refugees. Precisely, the last proposal of the United States proposed the solution of two states, although with many limitations of the Palestinian state entity; an American proposal that was rejected by the Arab community despite the promise of a great economic injection that had been raised by the government of Donald Trump. 

During this week, Israeli sources suggested that, after the Emirates, other countries would do the same, and Morocco, Sudan, Oman and Bahrain were cited. The latter two had welcomed the agreement between the UAE and Israel, but nothing more. In Sudan, the foreign spokesman was dismissed outright for suggesting that his country would also join without consulting his superiors. Kuwait, like Saudi Arabia, remained silent until Wednesday, when it suggested that it would be the last country to join in any case. Several Kuwaiti personalities spoke out in earnest against it.