“In a word? No”: the creation of a Palestinian state is not a “realistic position”, according to Gideon Saar

Wanting to establish a Palestinian state is not “today” a “realistic” project, declared Monday the new Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Saar, during a press conference in Jerusalem.

“In a word? No,” replied Mr. Saar, when asked about the prospect of a relaunch of the so-called Abraham Accords with the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States and the possibility of extending normalization between Israel and several Arab countries to Saudi Arabia in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state. “A Palestinian state (…) will be a Hamas state,” he added, “I don’t think this position is realistic today, and we have to be realistic.”

“The most important issue for the future of the Middle East is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” continued the new head of Israeli diplomacy, who added that newly elected American President Donald Trump had “clearly indicated that he understood the dangers of seeing Iran seize nuclear weapons”, while the latter spoke three times by telephone with Benjamin Netanyahu last week, according to Axios.

Gideon Saar, who took office last week to replace Israel Kaatz, appointed to Defense after the ouster of Yoav Gallant by the head of government Benjamin Netanyahu on November 5, also spoke on the the state of negotiations around a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. “Israel is ready to end the war in Gaza when its objectives are achieved,” he said, adding that his government had “responded positively” to talks on the ceasefire in Gaza, but that “ Hamas has not progressed” in this area.

Finally, he indicated that “the inhabitants of northern Gaza will be able to return home at the end of the war”, while the Israeli army has been relentlessly besieging and shelling the north of the enclave since the beginning of October , killing hundreds of residents and forcing thousands more to move south.

“No decision has been taken” on the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, he concluded.