Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has declared that Israel has a right to exist. What are the reasons behind this statement? Does it signify closer ties between the countries?

In an interview published on Monday with the US magazine The Atlantic, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Israel had a right to exist.

The crown prince told the magazine that Saudi Arabia has no problems with Jewish people. He pointed that Islam’s Prophet Muhammad “married a Jewish woman.”

The crown prince’s statement could signify closer ties between the countries. “Israel is a big economy compared to their size, and it’s a growing economy, and of course there are a lot of interests we share with Israel, and if there is peace, there would be a lot of interest between Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and countries like Egypt and Jordan,” he said. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel wish to contain Iran, for example. Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia sees Shiite Iran as its main rival vying for influence in the region, with Iran playing a role in the conflicts in Syria, Yemen and other nations.

Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University, told DW that “Iran is the main motivator” behind the changing stance toward Israel. “Saudi Arabia considers its competition with Iran one about leading the Islamic world, with fears that it could be dominated by the Shiites under Iran,” he said. Also, both countries fear that Iran could get nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia would even likely welcome Israel’s striking facilities in Iran that could be developing nuclear material, Nafaa said.

‘Pure nonsense’

Yossi Mekelberg,a professor of international relations at Regent’s University London, told DW that Saudi recognition would be very important for Israel in a part of the world that is hostile toward its very existence. “We can see that Israel is a part of the region and that there need to be fair and just negotiations with the Palestinians, but all the old language that says that Israel should be completely eliminated should stop,” he said. Mekelberg said Israelis would welcome the statement, while Palestinians “would not be as pleased because they feel that the Israelis are getting recognition from the Arab world without paying the Palestinians necessary concessions in the peace process.”

Indeed, Israeli and Arab voices had varied reactions on social media. Elad Ratson, an Israeli diplomat in London, suggested that the crown prince’s statement shows that Saudi Arabia backs his country’s policies within the region.