EAM S Jaishankar speaks to Saudi counterpart on Israel crisis

External affairs minister S Jaishankar spoke to his Saudi Arabian counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud on Friday as part of India’s outreach to Arab states on the fallout of the Hamas attacks on Israel.

The conversation between the Indian and Saudi foreign ministers follows Jaishankar’s conversation with his United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Wednesday.

“Appreciated the conversation with Foreign Minister HH @FaisalbinFarhan of Saudi Arabia. Discussed the grave situation in the Middle East,” Jaishankar said in a post on X.

India has described the Hamas assault on southern Israel a terrorist attack while simultaneously pointing out that it has always backed direct negotiations for establishing a sovereign state of Palestine that can exist side by side with Israel.

The Indian side has close and strategic relations with Israel and key Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. The Indian leadership’s initial response to the developments in Israel had perturbed several Arab states.

The UAE and Bahrain, which normalised relations with Israel by signing the US-backed Abraham Accords, were among the few Arab countries that named Hamas in condemning the attacks over the weekend. The two countries also described the Hamas attacks as a grave and dangerous escalation and denounced the abduction of Israeli civilians as hostages.

In marked contrast, other Arab states such as Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia attributed the upsurge in violence to continuing violations and attacks by Israeli “occupation” forces against Palestinians, including repeated incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is Islam’s third holiest site.

The statements issued by the foreign ministries of these countries also did not specifically name Hamas, reflecting the rift within the Arab world on the issue.