Israeli President Isaac Herzog told a rare interview with Saudi TV on Thursday that achieving peace with Riyadh remains one of his greatest aspirations.
Herzog also expressed admiration for Saudi leaders Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and called for closer relations between Jews and Muslims across the Middle East.
“It is my dream to see peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. I have great respect for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman,” he told the state-owned Al-Arabiya channel.
"The thing that we want most in Israel is to see rapprochement between the nations.
“The dialogue between Jerusalem and Mecca should be the real gist of it, because I believe Jews and Muslims need to dwell together in this region in peace.
“I guess I can’t come to Riyadh just as an ordinary citizen, but I hope to be able to realise this dream and meet the Saudi Arabian leadership officially in due course."
Herzog then praised the Abraham Accords as a model for regional cooperation.
“We are very happy about the Abraham Accords, and we’re very proud of our relations with the Kingdom of Morocco, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and with the United Arab Emirates, which is just an example of how successful it can be,” he said.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said that normalisation with Israel would require significant progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
US officials have continued to express hope that a normalisation agreement could be reached as part of a broader regional realignment.
Addressing Iran’s recent actions in the region, Herzog accused Tehran of repeatedly violating agreements.
“I am not surprised that this is the situation, because with the Iranian pattern of behaviour, which we know, it is impossible to do deals,” he said. “They violate them all the time. They have their own way of interpreting things that are very, very clear.”
But he welcomed Washington’s response to the latest developments.
“I’m happy that the American reaction is firm so that everybody understands, especially the Iranians, that they have to go back on track if they really want to implement an exit from the war,” he went on.
“There is a close and good dialogue, especially in closed rooms. We can have our differences. It’s only natural, but in the end, they’re tactical.
“We all understand that we are faced with an empire of evil in Tehran, with its proxies, with its belief that the United States is the big Satan and Israel is the small Satan.
“I respect President Trump, and I respect Vice President JD Vance, and I respect Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the entire administration. We work closely with them on many issues, and I believe that the grand picture – which the United States should push with Europe and others – is the connectivity between the East and the West.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, he discussed the Gaza War and mourned the loss of civilian life in the Strip, for which he blamed Hamas.
The president said that his “heart aches” for innocent Palestinians killed in the war, “because this is not our aim or desire in any way,” adding that Gazans “deserve a good life” free of Hamas’ brutal rule.
His comments come after Hamas agreed to dissolve its governing body in Gaza, leaving the territory officially free of the terror group’s authority for the first time in 20 years.
However, a Hamas spokesperson insisted that current members of its government would retain roles in the new administration under the US-backed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), which is due to assume control of the Strip under Washington’s 20-point peace plan, agreed last year.
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