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Following the announcement of the peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Saudi royal family is divided on the potential embrace of Israel.
On one side, King Salman seems to maintain the Saudi traditional pro-Palestinian posture; on the other, ambitious Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is eager to reform Saudi foreign policy. Earlier this month, the crown prince received a boost from the shrewdest diplomat in the kingdom. In a three-part explosive interview aired on the Saudi network Al Arabiya, Saudi Arabia's pillar of diplomacy Prince Bandar bin Sultan opened up about the disappointments of the Palestinian cause and its leadership.
Prince Bandar openly called their leaders a "failure" only a few weeks following the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, constituting a significant indication of the direction to which Saudi Arabia wants to push the domestic public opinion. But the affairs of the Saudi royal family are less straightforward than they may seem.
For nearly three decades, Prince Bandar (known in Washington, DC, as "Bandar Bush") served as the Saudi royal family's link to US government leaders – one of the most strategically important relationships in the Middle East. During his tenure as Saudi ambassador to the United States, and later as chief of Saudi intelligence, Prince Bandar shaped Saudi-US relations, as well as Saudi foreign policy, when it came to the major issues of Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Read the full article here.
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