A SENIOR Saudi royal has condemned Israel for its hypocritical stance on regional stability and nuclear non-proliferation.
Saudi Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, former ambassador to the US and the UK, called on the Jewish state to join the Arab Peace Initiative if it was serious about stability in the region.
The initiative is a 10-point proposal, endorsed by the Arab League, which offers Israel a normalisation of relations with the Arab nations in return for a full withdrawal from territories including West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Lebanon, a settlement of Palestinian refugees and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Prince Turki had sharply criticised Israel last year for ‘colonising territories’ and building an ‘apartheid wall’ even as it continued to deny Palestinians their rights.
This year, the showdown took place during a question-and-answer segment of the final plenary session, titled ‘Militias, Missiles and Nuclear Proliferation’, of the 17th edition of the IISS Manama Dialogue at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay.
In response, Israeli National Security Adviser Dr Eyal Hulata said that “Israel’s role in the region has been stabilising, rather than destabilising”.
He also asserted that stability in the region can be achieved in parallel with a solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, instead of the former depending on the latter.
“Israel is committed to stability and improving the lives of the Palestinians,” he added, noting that his country only wishes for Hamas to stop ‘accumulating arms and firing on citizens and towns’.
Earlier, addressing the session, Dr Hulata said Iran was the most destabilising force in the region and declared Israel’s intention to never allow the Islamic republic to become a nuclear-weapon state.
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