Saudi Arabia leads first talks in global alliance backing Palestinian state

Saudi Arabia is on Wednesday expected to open the first meeting of a new “international alliance” to press for the establishment of a Palestinian state, state media said.

The “International Alliance to Implement the Two-State Solution” was unveiled last month on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Saudi state media reported at the time, bringing together Arab and Islamic countries and European countries.

This week’s meeting in Riyadh is expected to last for two days and feature sessions on humanitarian access, the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees and incentives to promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, diplomats said.

The European Union will be represented by Sven Koopmans, the special representative for the Middle East peace process, diplomats said.

The Gaza war has revived talk of a “two-state solution” of Israeli and Palestinian states living in peace side by side, though analysts say the goal seems more unattainable than ever.

The hard-right Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains implacably opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites, paused US-brokered talks on recognising Israel after the Gaza war broke out between Palestinian Hamas and Israel.

Israeli strike on Beit Lahiya kills at least 55 Palestinians, many trapped under rubble

In September, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said an “independent Palestinian state” was a condition for normalisation.

Ireland, Norway and Spain announced their recognition of a Palestinian state in May, prompting an angry response from Israel.

Slovenia soon joined them, bringing the number of countries that recognise a Palestinian state to 146 out of the 193 UN member states.

The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,061 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.