RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said on Sunday it had written to the US top diplomat condemning controversial comments from Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich in which he denied the existence of a Palestinian people.
In a letter to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the council called Washington to assume its responsibilities in responding to all steps and comments that target the Palestinian people.
The letter from the 6-member GCC’s foreign ministers also called on the US to play its due role in reaching a just, lasting, and comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, said earlier this month that the Palestinians did not exist as a people, a statement that sparked anger among Arab states.
The United States State Department said they had found Smotrich’s statement to be not only inaccurate but also dangerous and deeply dangerous.
Smotrich is part of veteran Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right administration that took office in December.
GCC condemns another statement
The GCC ministers also condemned earlier comments by Smotrich, calling for the Palestinian town Huwara in the West Bank to be wiped out after 2 Israelis were shot dead there by a suspected Hamas militant in February, a statement he later walked back.
The council, whose foreign ministers met in Riyadh last week, included the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, which normalized ties with Israel under the United States-crafted 2020 Abraham Accords, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has not.
