“On the contrary, I think that this is a very important part of building the puzzle of a better solution,” Espen Barth Eide told JNS.
By Mike Wagenheim, JNS
Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s top diplomat, has no regrets about recognizing a Palestinian state this year, despite subsequent terror attacks on Israel, the Norwegian foreign minister told JNS on Thursday in a press gaggle.
“No, I don’t regret it at all,” Eide said.
Oslo was once a neutral broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but Norway does not refer to Hamas as a terror organization and Eide was highly critical of Israel’s prosecution of its war against the U.S.-designated terror group.
Israeli-Norwegian relations have broken down, and Eide is considered persona non grata in Jerusalem, which has revoked the credentials of Norwegian diplomats serving in Palestinian-controlled areas.
When Norway recognized Palestinian statehood in May, Eide said that Oslo did so to boost regional moderates and sideline Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies.
JNS asked the Norwegian diplomat if he wished to qualify his earlier assertion, as Iranian proxies have increased attacks on the Jewish state, and they have only been sidelined when Israel has defended itself with deadly force.
Eide did not back down.
“On the contrary, I think that this is a very important part of building the puzzle of a better solution,” he said.
Eide cited what he said are the “moderate forces” of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and his government, which “can be strengthened through economic means but also politically by universal recognition, which is the opposite of the extremist forces.”
Eide said that the “state of Palestine” envisioned by the Oslo Accords “is not the Hamas vision.”
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas did not mention Hamas once in his 26-minute speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. The authority has not condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.
Eide spoke to reporters after a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, after which Saudi Arabia announced that it had formed a global alliance to pursue a two-state solution.
The alliance purportedly includes both Arab and Muslim nations and European partners, although Riyadh didn’t name any of them.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said last week that the kingdom would not normalize relations with Israel without a Palestinian state.
JNS asked Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, on Thursday to clarify conflicting statements by Saudi officials about whether a Palestinian state is a prerequisite to Israeli-Saudi normalization or whether a “pathway” to get there was sufficient.
The crown prince’s speech was “quite clear that we need to see the establishment of a Palestinian state, and that is what we are focused on,” the Saudi foreign minister told JNS.