"The official and latest Saudi position is that we are prepared to normalize relations with Israel as soon as Israel implements the elements of the Saudi peace initiative that was presented in 2002," Al-Mouallimi said.
He added that once implementing the initiative, Israel will have recognition "not only from Saudi Arabia but the entire Muslim world, all 57 countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation".
"Time does not change right or wrong. The Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is wrong no matter how long it lasts," the diplomat said.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.
It may be recalled that when United Arab Emirates (UAE) became the first Gulf state to normalize relations with Israel, in a historic US-brokered accord, it raised the prospect of similar deals with other Arab states including Saudi Arabia.
However, Saudi Arabia declared it will not follow UAE in establishing diplomatic ties with Israel until the Jewish state has signed an internationally recognized peace accord with the Palestinians.
But after days of conspicuous silence and in the face of US pressure to announce a similar deal, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan ruled out the possibility until the Palestinian issue is resolved.
Peace must be achieved with the Palestinians on the basis of international agreements as a pre-condition for any normalization of relations, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters during a visit to Berlin.
“Once that is achieved all things are possible,” he added, in a comment that was consistent with Saudi Arabia's previous stance on the issue.
Prince Faisal's remarks were the kingdom's first official reaction since the UAE's landmark deal with Israel, which was the third such accord the Jewish state has struck with an Arab country after Egypt and Jordan.
Until now, Saudi Arabia had maintained a notable silence over the deal even as local officials hinted that Riyadh was unlikely to immediately follow in the footsteps of the UAE, its principle regional ally.
United States kept pressure on the kingdom, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had insisted that it would be in Riyadh's interest to formally establish ties with Israel.
Further putting the kingdom in the spotlight, the then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was working on opening a corridor over Saudi Arabia for flights to the UAE.
Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's biggest economy and home to Islam's holiest sites, faces more sensitive political calculations than the UAE.
Not only would a formal recognition of Israel be seen by Palestinians and their supporters as a betrayal of their cause, it would also hurt the kingdom's image as the leader of the Islamic world.
“The notion that Saudi Arabia will be next in normalizing relations with Israel was far-fetched,” said Aziz Alghashian, a lecturer at Essex University specializing in the kingdom's policy towards Israel.
The biggest constraint for Saudi-Israeli normalization is not the fear of a domestic and regional backlash. “Rather, Saudi Arabia deems it necessary not to normalize relations outside the framework of the Arab Peace Initiative that called for resolving the Palestinian issue, if it still wants to be seen as the leader of the Muslim and Arab world,” Alghashian told AFP.
In 2002, Saudi Arabia sponsored the Arab Peace Initiative which called for Israel's complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territories occupied after the Six-Day War of 1967, in exchange for peace and the full normalization of relations.
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