European-Arab Talks on Israeli-Palestinian Solution

European and Arab foreign ministers met in the Saudi capital to discuss how to join forces on advancing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"If we want to move this two-state solution forward it will not happen from the parties. I do not believe that Israel is ready to negotiate at this point, and I do not think that the US is ready to take the necessary leadership," Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, one of the organizers of the meeting, told reporters after it concluded.

"So I think an Arab-European leadership is the best we can hope for."

The meeting took place on the sidelines of a two-day World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh that was largely devoted to the grinding war in the Gaza Strip, which was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan is among the leaders who told the World Economic Forum meeting that tangible and irreversible steps towards establishing a Palestinian state would be an essential component of any deal for a durable ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a long-standing opponent of Palestinian statehood.

"The continued rejection of the two-state solution will inevitably undermine the security and stability of the region," Prince Faisal said at the start of the European-Arab meeting, which was also attended by Turkey's foreign minister.

Also Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan receives US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat in Riyadh at the start of a new crisis tour aimed at pushing an elusive Israel-Hamas ceasefire and increasing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.