Saudi crown prince said he personally 'doesn't care' about 'Palestinian issue'

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he does not personally care about what he referred to as the "Palestinian issue", according to a report in the Atlantic.

Published on Wednesday, the report gave a picture of 11 months of Washington's negotiation efforts in the region after the outbreak of war in Gaza, citing "two dozen participants at the highest levels of government in America and across the Middle East". 

It stated that during a visit to Saudi Arabia in January, Blinken and the crown prince met in the Saudi city of al-Ula to discuss the prospect of the Gulf kingdom normalising relations with Israel amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. 

Months earlier, Riyadh had appeared to be making progress in forming ties with Israel during US-led discussions, which were later derailed by the outbreak of war on 7 October. 

If a normalisation deal were to occur, the crown prince expressed to Blinken a desire for calm in Gaza. 

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