Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said Israel is a ‘potential ally’ of his country, adding that he would like to ‘work it out’ with Iran.
“For us, we hope that the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is solved,” MBS said in an interview with the Atlantic. “We don’t look at Israel as an enemy, we look to them as a potential ally, with many interests that we can pursue together. But we have to solve some issues before we get to that.”
Saudi Arabia currently does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, but in recent years Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have normalised ties with the country.
At the same time, MBS said that his kingdom also hoped to improve relations with Iran, a long foe of the Jewish state, adding that he would like be able to reach a position which was beneficial to both countries.
“They are neighbours. Neighbours forever. We cannot get rid of them, and they can’t get rid of us,” the prince said of Iran. “So it’s better for both of us to work it out and to look for ways in which we can coexist.”
Asked about the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the prince said it was a ‘huge mistake’ and said that the accusations that he had personally ordered the killing “hurt him a lot.”
“What happened was painful. that was a huge failure in the system,” he said, adding that “In any case, if that’s the way we did things, Khashoggi would not even be among the top 1,000 people on the list.”
MBS also revealed his television preferences, saying that he liked ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Foundation’ but thought ‘House of Cards’ was ‘not good’ for him as it was too similar to his own life.
