This week, Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal made a statement regarding the ongoing violence in the Middle East, which is unusually different compared to the statements of other senior members of the Saudi royal family on this matter.
His statement can also be seen as a viewpoint of the Saudi leadership because as a skilled and senior politician, Prince Turki Al-Faisal is viewed with respect in Saudi society.
He has publicly criticized the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7 and Israel's subsequent retaliation.
He said that there is no hero in this whole matter, if there are anyone then they are the victims.
Recently, there is a lot of anger in the Arab countries regarding Israel's aggressive retaliatory action against Gaza.
In such a situation, the statement of Prince Turki, who came to give a speech to the American people at Rice University in Houston, is being seen as the voice of an Arab country criticizing Hamas in the present times.
He said, "Hamas' actions were against the rules that prohibit harming civilians. Most of the people who were killed or abducted by Hamas were civilians."
What did Turki Al-Faisal say?
Prince Turki's statement was very precise, on one hand he criticized Hamas and on the other hand he also lashed out at Israel.
Prince Turki, a former diplomat and intelligence chief, said that "Israel is bombing innocent people in Gaza. It is arresting Palestinian children, women and men in the West Bank."
He also criticized the term "unprovoked attack" being used in the American media for the October 7 incident.
He said, “What more was needed for provocation… Was what Israel has done to the Palestinian people in the last 70 years of the last 100 years not enough?”
He said that "people living under military occupation have the right to protest against this occupation."
Prince Turki also criticized Western politicians and said, "They are shedding tears when Israelis are killed by Palestinians, but they are not even expressing sorrow when Israelis are killing Palestinians."
During his visit to Israel this week, US President Joe Biden expressed grief for all the innocent people killed in the violence.
Prince Turki understands the thinking of western countries
Prince Turki would be fully aware that his speech would definitely be reported in the media. In such a situation, why did he give this speech?
There is little possibility that he would have given such a speech outside the country without taking the permission of Rajya Sabha. The Saudi Royal Assembly is controlled by the most powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the country, who on Thursday itself spoke to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the issue of the Middle East.
Talking about Prince Turki Al-Faisal's family, he comes from a very progressive background. His father King Faisal was well known in the country, he worked to modernize the country. He was assassinated in 1975.
Prince Turki's brother was the Foreign Minister for the longest time. He remained on this post till his death in 2015.
Prince Turki has studied in Princeton, Cambridge and Georgetown in America and Britain, due to which he understands the culture and thinking of western countries much better. For this reason, he has very good relations with many people in the political circles of America and Britain.
After completing his studies, he became the head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence department and handled foreign intelligence for 24 years. He was also given the special responsibility of Afghanistan.
He also served as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US and Britain after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
When he was working as ambassador in London. At that time, well-known journalist Jamal Khashoggi used to be his media spokesperson.
In 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Regarding this, Saudi Arabia later said that a team of Saudi agents had gone to take him back to the country and during this 'operation' he was killed.
Opinion of Arab countries on Hamas
Prince Turki is now 78 years old and no longer formally holds any position in the Saudi government. However, a lot is still known about the thinking of the Saudi family from his speech in the international forum.
Saudi rulers are supporters of Hamas. The truth is also that the governments of many countries in this region also do not support Hamas.
Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also consider Hamas, its revolutionary ideas and its ideology of so-called "political Islam" to be opposed to secular rule.
In 2007, Hamas virtually ousted the Fateh Party from Gaza. The Fateh Party, formed by well-known Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, still rules those parts of the West Bank that Israel has not yet captured.
In this short-lived conflict between the two sides, some members of the Fateh Party were thrown from the roofs of high buildings.
Although Hamas's political wing has an office in Qatar, its main supporter is Iran. Iran and Saudi Arabia have been rivals of each other for a long time.
In March this year, it was formally agreed between Iran and Saudi Arabia that both would forget their mutual differences and join hands. Although the long standing distrust between the two has completely ended, it is not so.
However, both have strongly criticized Israel's bombing of Gaza and both have expressed their support for the Palestinian state.
Will Saudi-Iran relations normalize?
It is difficult to believe this now, but until Hamas' attack on Israel two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia, like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, was moving towards normalizing its relations with Israel. But this effort has now been shelved.
Many analysts believe that Hamas had attacked Israel with the aim of derailing the normalizing relations between Israel and other countries in the Middle East. Because if relations between Israel and other countries in the Middle East had improved, there was a danger of Iran and Hamas being sidelined.
But will the status quo ever return to the Middle East?
As of now, there seems to be little chance of this happening. Israel, injured by the attack by Hamas, will not want to make any kind of compromise.
Knowing that anti-Israel demonstrations are taking place on the streets of Arab countries, it will feel a little hesitant in joining hands with the governments of those countries.
But when the Gaza conflict ends, as it is sure to happen one day, it is possible that Saudi Arabia will come forward to bring normal life in Gaza back on track. He can provide great financial help in the restructuring work here.
In such a situation, it will be very important to keep an eye on the statements of Saudi Prince Turkey, so that perhaps we can get an idea of what is Saudi Arabia's view on the whole matter in the future.
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