MANAMA: Representatives of Saudi Arabia and Israel sparred on Sunday at aregional security summit.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, a Saudi former intelligence chief who is said to beclose to the country’s top leadership, reiterated strong support for thePalestinian cause in a fiery presentation to the Manama Dialogue securityforum.
His remarks were met with retorts from the Jewish state’s foreign ministerwho addressed the gathering virtually.
The row erupted months after the UAE and Bahrain broke decades of Arabconsensus by normalising ties with Israel, a move condemned as a “stab inthe back” by Palestinians.
In unusually blunt language, the Saudi prince accused Israel of depictingitself as a “small, existentially threatened country, surrounded bybloodthirsty killers who want to eradicate her from existence”.
“And yet they profess that they want to be friends with Saudi Arabia,” hesaid.
He described the Jewish state as a “Western colonising power” and outlineda history of forcible eviction of Palestinians and destroyed villages.
Palestinians were held “in concentration camps under the flimsiest ofsecurity accusations — young and old, women and men, who are rotting therewithout recourse to justice,” he said.
He said the Israeli authorities are “demolishing homes as they wish, andthey assassinate whomever they want.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi addressed the meeting byvideoconference shortly afterwards, expressing his “regret” over thecomments, which come after years of covertly warming relations between thetwo Mideast powers.
“The false accusations of the Saudi representative at the Manama Conferencedo not reflect the facts or the spirit & changes the region is undergoing,”he said in a tweet.
“I rejected his remarks & emphasised that the ‘blame game’ era is over. Weare at the dawn of a new era. An era of peace.”
Prince Turki, who said his comments reflected his personal view, voicedscepticism over the US-brokered Abraham Accords, to which Washington hasbeen urging the kingdom to sign up.
“You cannot treat an open wound with palliatives and painkillers. TheAbraham Accords are not divine writ,” he said. -APP/AFP