Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday said normalizing ties with Saudi Arabia would be crucial for ending the conflict in Gaza and could be a game-changer for the entire Middle East.
However, Riyadh emphasized that talks about a landmark deal recognizing Israel cannot proceed until there is a cease-fire in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
"It’s still delicate, it's fragile, and it will take a long time, but I think that it is actually an opportunity to move forward in the world and the region towards a better future," Herzog told the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss town of Davos.
It comes days after Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said at a Davos panel that the kingdom agreed "regional peace includes peace for Israel." He said Riyadh was still "certainly" open to the possibility of future ties with Israel as part of a larger political agreement.
"But that can only happen through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state," he said.
"We don't see any real sign that any strategic objectives that Israel has claimed are... coming any closer," he added.
At the same avenue, Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud, the kingdom's ambassador to the United States, said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia is unable to pursue talks about a deal to recognize Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
"I think the most important thing to realise is the kingdom has not put normalization at the heart of its policy. It's put peace and prosperity at the heart of its policy," she told a panel at the World Economic Forum.
"The kingdom has been quite clear. While there is violence on the ground and the killing persists, we cannot talk about the next day."
'Cooler heads must prevail'
Princess Reema said, "cooler heads must prevail."
"There's trauma and pain on both sides. I can't take that back. But what we can do is cease-fire now."
U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken also reiterated in a talk at Davos that a pathway to statehood for Palestinians could help improve Israel's security and its relations with other countries in the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government, however, are opposed to the concept of a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Herzog, whose ceremonial role is meant to serve as a national unifier, said public support for it is low because traumatized Israelis are focused on their own safety following Palestinian resistance group Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7.
Israel has since been conducting relentless bombardment and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.
These attacks have killed more than 24,600 Palestinians, around 70% of them women, children and adolescents, according to Gaza health ministry figures.
The death toll in Israel stands at 1,140 according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally based on official Israeli figures.
The conflict has led to the displacement of more than 85% of the population in the Gaza Strip – approximately 1.9 million residents – according to Palestinian authorities and the United Nations.
Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, has never recognized Israel and did not join the 2020 U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords that saw its Gulf neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as Morocco establish formal ties with Israel.
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has pushed hard for Saudi Arabia to take the same step.
Under de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of King Salman, Riyadh had laid out conditions for normalization, including security guarantees from Washington and help to develop a civilian nuclear program.
In an interview with Fox News in September, Prince Mohammed said that "every day we get closer" to a deal, although he also insisted the Palestinian issue was "very important" for Riyadh.
That apparent momentum stalled soon after Israel's aggression started.
Fears of a regional conflagration
The Saudi delegation's appearance in Davos came amid fears of a regional conflagration, which have only grown after cross-border strikes between Iran and Pakistan and U.S. military action targeting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen known as Houthis.
Princess Reema said on Thursday she was "profoundly concerned" about escalation that could send the region "back to the stone age."
Iran has taken military action against what it called an Israeli intelligence operation in Iraq and launched attacks in Pakistan and Syria. Houthis also have upended global shipping by attacking vessels in the Red Sea, triggering retaliatory strikes from the U.S. and Britain.
On Wednesday in Davos, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian insisted Iran's strike in Iraq, as well as against an alleged militant base in Pakistan, are part of his country’s right to self-defense and accused Israel of "genocide" in its campaign against Hamas.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani also condemned the war in Gaza during a Davos talk Thursday, saying "the international community has failed."
But Sudani sought to balance his position between the U.S. and Iran, saying Iraq has "interests" and "strategic partnerships" with both. He also reiterated calls for U.S.-led coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq, saying their presence is no longer justified because the Daesh terrorist group is "no longer a threat to the Iraqi people."
The Iraqi and Israeli leaders were headliners in Thursday's flurry of activity in Davos venues where world leaders, corporate titans and other elites mingle.
Norway Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press (AP) that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians "might seem far away right now, but it could also be closer than we think."
"A lot of people who used to pay lip service to this are now actually more worried than in the long run, that absent of such a development, we will have a continued escalation of violence," he said.