Report claims Saudi Crown Prince has no personal concern for 'palestinian issue'
Saudi denies allegation
Riyadh: US magazine The Atlantic has reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expressed a lack of personal concern for the "Palestinian issue" during a conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in January. The two leaders reportedly discussed the possibility of normalising relations with Israel amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
According to the report, Blinken asked whether Saudi Arabia would tolerate periodic Israeli reentries into Gaza as part of a potential normalisation agreement. The crown prince purportedly responded, "They can come back in six months, a year, but not on the back end of my signing something like this."
He added, “Seventy percent of my population is younger than me. For most of them, they never really knew much about the Palestinian issue. And so they’re being introduced to it for the first time through this conflict. It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful.”
A Saudi official, however, has described this account of the conversation as “incorrect.”
Despite the new reported comments, Mohammed bin Salman has in the past publicly stated that Saudi Arabia will not normalise relations with Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
"The Kingdom will not cease its diligent efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital," he said at a recent annual address before the Shura Council in Riyadh.
"We confirm that Saudi Arabia will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until that goal is achieved.”
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Another Mpox case reported in Kerala
The Kerala health department on Friday said another Mpox case was reported in the state and urged those who have symptoms to seek treatment.
The southern state had reported the country's first confirmed case of the new strain earlier this week.
A high-level evaluation meeting was held on Friday to evaluate the situation, the state health department said.
State Health Minister Veena George said the contact list of the patient has been prepared and the preventive measures have been taken.
The minister urged everyone who reached the state from abroad to approach the health department in case of any symptoms and seek treatment.
"Isolation facilities have been arranged in all the districts," the minister said in a statement.
On September 23, the health department had announced plans to release revised guidelines for the prevention and treatment of Mpox.
George had said that instructions were issued to take necessary action if the number of cases increases.
Official sources in New Delhi had earlier said that India had reported the first case of the Mpox strain in a patient from Kerala who tested positive.
They had said that the Clade 1b strain was detected in a 38-year-old man from Malappuram district who had recently returned from the United Arab Emirates.
Since the WHO's 2022 declaration of Mpox as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, 30 cases have been reported in India.
Mpox infections are generally self-limiting, lasting between two and four weeks, and patients usually recover with supportive medical care and management.
It is transmitted through prolonged and close contact with an infected patient.
Mpox typically manifests itself with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications.
