Saudi Foreign Minister: Palestinian State ‘Already Exists,’ Palestinian Authority ‘Capable and Credible’

The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud speaks during a new
AP Photo/Lisa Leutner
Frances Martel

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said in an interview published Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank, was a “capable and credible” entity that should be considered a contender to govern both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, united in a hypothetical state of “Palestine.”

Prince Faisal also said that, from the perspective of his Islamist regime, the Palestinian state “already exists” and the only obstacles to the rest of the world accepting its sovereignty are other countries recognizing it, an agreement on where its borders would be, and who would comprise its government.

The Saudi government has loudly demanded the establishment of a Palestinian state since the atrocities of October 7, in which the rulers of Gaza, the terrorist organization Hamas, invaded Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people and engaging in widespread acts of gang rape, infanticide, mutilation, and desecration of corpses, among other crimes. Hamas is a genocidal organization whose objective is the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a jihadist “Palestine.”

While Hamas controls Gaza, the Palestinian Authority, led for the past two decades by 88-year-old Mahmoud Abbas, controls the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority is overwhelmingly unpopular among Palestinians and distrusted by Israel, given its Islamist, antisemitic stances. Hamas, which has feuded for decades with the Palestinian Authority, appeared to warm up to the idea of a “unity” government leading a state of “Palestine” in the aftermath of October 7.

“We are open to all national components to rebuild our national reference under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization democratically, in addition to agreeing to a national government for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” the political head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said in January.

Prince Faisal, speaking to France 24 in an interview at this week’s Munich Security Conference, effusively praised the Palestinian Authority for allegedly maintaining “security” in the West Bank.

“The Palestinian Authority is capable, with the support of the international community, of controlling the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” the foreign minister asserted, adding that discussing the leadership of the Palestinian Authority was a way to bring “real hope” to the prospect of carving a state of “Palestine” out of Israel.

“If you talk to the Palestinian Authority themselves, they acknowledge that they need a strong reform process to establish or reinvigorate their cooperation,” Prince Faisal said in a snippet of the interview published by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The Palestinian Authority has shown themselves incredibly capable and credible when it comes to issues of maintaining security in the West Bank.”

“We see quite clearly today that the Palestinian Authority is able to maintain security under the most difficult situation – a lack of funding including the withholding of funds that are due to them by Israel,” the foreign minister continued, “and continuing settlement activity and continuing provocations by extremist settlers in the West Bank. Nonetheless, the Palestinian Authority is able to maintain an acceptable level of security.”

“What does this tell us? This tells us that the Palestinian Authority is capable of maintaining security. Could it do better for the interest of the Palestinian people? Sure, they acknowledge this and they are ready for this process,” he concluded.

Prince Faisal said of the idea of a state of “Palestine” that such a country “already exists, and what now has to come into play is a recognition of that Palestinian State and a definition of its borders.”

“These are things that need to be clearly defined and understood and this is what we require,” he asserted.

The government of Saudi Arabia has in recent years, under the de facto leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, attempted to improve relations with Israel despite intense opposition from jihadist terror groups and Islamists throughout the region. In an interview published in September, less than a month before the October 7 massacres, Mohammed bin Salman expressed hope of normalizing relations with Israel and omitted mention of the recognition of a “Palestine” as a prerequisite to accepting diplomatic ties Israel.

“For us, the Palestinian issue is very important,” Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News. “We need to solve that part. … We hope that it will reach a place that it will ease the life of the Palestinians, and get Israel back as a player in the Middle East.”

By November, making his debut as a member of the China-led BRICS geopolitical coalition, Mohammed bin Salman was insisting that Israel cede East Jerusalem to be used as a “capital” of “Palestine,” a clear shift in rhetoric.
“The Kingdom’s firm and unaltered stance has always been and remains that security and stability in Palestine can be achieved only through implementing international resolutions pertaining to the two-state solution,” bin Salman told fellow BRICS members, “in order to enable the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate right to establish an independent and sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Prince Faisal, the foreign minister, admitted in an interview in January that Riyadh and Jerusalem were extremely close to a deal to normalize ties, but Hamas derailed that progress with its unprecedented terror spree.

“I think before October 7, we were making very, very good progress. It’s hard for me to describe how close we were. It’s something I can’t really quantify,” he lamented.

Introducing the Palestinian Authority as a potential leading entity for a theoretical state of “Palestine” will likely face significant opposition from both the state of Israel and the Palestinians who currently live under the Palestinian Authority. A recent poll found that 87 percent of Palestinians believe that the Authority is corrupt. Another public opinion survey published shortly after October 7 found that support for Hamas, the terrorist organization responsible, skyrocketed among Palestinians, in part at the expense of the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) found in a December poll that 44 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank supported Hamas, up from 12 percent before October 7. Three out of four Palestinians in the West Bank said they would like to see Hamas government them – compared to only seven percent who said they would like the Palestinian Authority under Abbas to continue its rule.

The Israeli government is also unlikely to support the Palestinian Authority becoming the federal government of a Palestinian State. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted in December that the Palestinian Authority finances terrorism and is a longtime supporter of jihad against Israel, refusing to entertain the idea of giving it power over Gaza.

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