Saudi Arabia announces coalition to establish Palestinian state

Saudi Arabia has on Friday, in the margin of the United Nations General Assembly, announced an international coalition seeking the creation of a Palestinian state. It would be a coalition of Arab, Muslim and European countries.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said the coalition's goal is “to implement the two-state solution”, with an Israeli and Palestinian state living peacefully side by side.

According to him, the war Israel has been waging in the Gaza Strip for almost a year now in response to the large-scale attack by the extremist Palestinian organisation Hamas on 7 October can no longer be described as “self-defence”.

“The right to self-defence cannot justify the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, the systematic destruction, the forced displacement and the use of starvation as a weapon of war,” he stated.

The war also caused Saudi Arabia, the regional heavyweight, to shelve plans to recognise Israeli statehood.

^{Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud © BELGA PHOTO Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire}