Gaza Strip
\nSaudi Arabia has suspended talks on potentially normalising ties with Israel, a source told AFP on Saturday, amid the conflict raging between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
\nHamas launched a large-scale offensive on Israel on October 7 which killed 1,300 people, sparking a retaliatory bombing campaign that has killed at least 2,215 in the Gaza Strip ahead of a potential Israeli ground invasion of the territory.
\nA retaliatory bombing campaign has killed at least 2,215 in the Gaza Strip after Hamas launched a large-scale offensive on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,300 Israelis.
\nThe threat of a potential Israeli ground invasion looms as the military has told more than one million residents of northern Gaza to leave for the south of the blockaded territory.
\n\u201cSaudi Arabia has decided to pause discussion on possible normalisation and has informed US officials,\u201d a source familiar with the discussions told media.
\nThe news came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was about to meet with his Saudi counterpart on Saturday, the latest stop on a six-nation tour of the region.
\nThe Gulf kingdom, home to the holiest sites in Islam, has never recognised Israel and did not join the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords that saw its Gulf neighbours Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates as well as Morocco establish formal ties with Israel.
\nUS President Joe Biden\u2019s administration had been pushing hard in recent months for Saudi Arabia to take the same step.
\nUnder de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the ageing King Salman, Riyadh had laid out conditions for normalisation including security guarantees from Washington and help in developing a civilian nuclear programme.
\nIn an interview with Fox News last month, Prince Mohammed said \u201cevery day we get closer\u201d to a deal, though he also insisted the Palestinian issue was \u201cvery important\u201d for Riyadh.
\n\u201cWe need to solve that part. We need to ease the life of the Palestinians,\u201d he said.
\nThe deal was seen as a long shot by many analysts even before the war began.
\n\u201cNormalisation between the Kingdom and Israel is an American initiative and project that the Kingdom has welcomed in case the US could deliver an agreement addressing the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians \u2014 one that the Palestinians would accept,\u201d said Saudi analyst Hesham Alghannam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gaza Strip Saudi Arabia has suspended talks on potentially normalising ties with Israel, a source told AFP on Saturday, amid the conflict raging between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. Hamas launched a large-scale offensive on Israel on October 7 which killed 1,300 people, sparking a retaliatory bombing campaign that has killed at least 2,215 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-361679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n