Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Friday condemned what he called “Israeli aggression in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip” during a phone call with Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
King Salman also said the kingdom will keep reaching out to all parties to put pressure on Israel’s “occupation government”, according to Reuters.
Saudi Arabia earlier on Friday welcomed the declaration of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and said it appreciates Egyptian and international mediation efforts.
In recent years, there have been reports of a possible rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, particularly in the wake of the Abraham Accords, which saw Israel signing normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
Saudi officials have repeatedly stressed that while the country backs full normalization with Israel, a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority that results in a Palestinian state must come first.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly held a secret meeting in November in which they discussed the possibility of normalizing relations between their two countries.
Subsequent reports said the Crown Prince pulled back from a normalization deal with Israel largely because of the US election result. Riyadh denied the meeting had even taken place.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)