A Saudi Arabian official said there is only one thing stopping it from having diplomatic relations with Israel: the creation of a Palestinian state.

Bloomberg reported Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said in a TV interview in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday at the World Economic Forum that normalizing relations with Israel would benefit the Middle East, but not without resolving the Palestinian issue.

"We have said consistently that we believe normalization with Israel is something that is very much in the interest of the region," the prince said. "However, true normalization and true stability will only come through giving the Palestinians hope, through giving the Palestinians dignity.

"That requires giving the Palestinians a state, and that's the priority."

Through the Abraham Accords reached during the Trump administration, Israel secured diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabian neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. African Arab nations Morocco and Sudan later joined the pact. The creation of a Palestinian state was not a condition of the accords.

Normalizing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia has long been a goal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned to power as head of the nation's new government. But the new government wants to expand annexation of the West Bank and is against a Palestinian state.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have escalated in the past year because Israel's military stepped up raids in the West Bank after a spate of attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian militants.

Netanyahu met with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday in Jerusalem. A statement from Netanyahu's office said they "discussed the next steps to deepen the Abraham Accords and expand the circle of peace, with emphasis on a breakthrough regarding Saudi Arabia."

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