By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
TEHRAN/JERUSALEM/RIYADH (Worthy News) – Saudi Arabia has hosted the first high-level gathering of a new global coalition to press for a Palestinian state after Iran urged the world to stand up against Israel.
Unveiled last month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution unites nations from the Middle East, Europe, and beyond.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Wednesday that nearly 90 “states and international organizations” were participating in the two-day meeting in Riyadh.
Among them was the 27-nation European Union, represented by Sven Koopmans, the special representative for the Middle East peace process.
The U.S., Israel’s closest ally, sent Hady Amr, the State Department’s special representative for Palestinian affairs.
Faisal urged the nations to “exert all effort to reach a two-state solution” as “issuing condemnations against Israel and proposing partial solutions are no longer viable.”
His comments came just days after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei appealed to the world to form a military coalition “if necessary” against Israel after the Jewish nation struck army sites in Iran on Saturday, killing at least four military personnel.
WORLD COALITION
In comments reviewed by Worthy News on Monday, Khamenei said: “The world should form a coalition, a political coalition, an economic coalition, and if necessary, a military coalition against the war crimes of the Zionist regime, an evil regime that is committing the most savage war crimes today.”
Though tensions with Tehran remain, Prince Faisal seems to agree with these views, saying: “A genocide is happening with the goal of evicting the Palestinian people from their land, which Saudi Arabia rejects,” he said, describing the humanitarian situation as “catastrophic” and denouncing the “complete blockade” of northern Gaza.
Israel has rejected accusations of genocide, saying the goal of the ongoing operation is to “eliminate terror group Hamas” and rescue 251 hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023.
The Hamas assault killed some 1,200 people, described as the “worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust,” also known as the Shoah.
However, the Israel-Hamas war triggered by the massacre has revived talk of a “two-state solution” in which Israeli and Palestinian states would live side by side, though analysts say the goal seems more unattainable than ever.
The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains opposed to Palestinian statehood in the current circumstances, saying it would reward “the monsters of Hamas.”
The decision by Ireland, Norway, and Spain to announce their recognition of a Palestinian state in May prompted an angry response from Israel, which cast it as a prize for terrorism.
SLOVENIA JOINING
Slovenia soon joined them, bringing the number of countries recognizing a Palestinian state to 146 out of the 193 United Nations member states.
Yet, like Netanyahu, polls suggest that many Israelis share distrust toward Palestinian statehood following decades of terrorism, culminating in the October 7 massacre.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and custodian of what Islam regards as its “two holiest sites,” paused U.S.-brokered talks on recognizing Israel after the war broke out between Hamas and Israel.
However, last month, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said an “independent Palestinian state” was a condition for normalization.
He and others say Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, which Hamas-run authorities claim killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and injured more than 100,000 others.
At least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble throughout the Strip, according to Palestinian sources.
These figures have been difficult to verify, and the Hamas-run Health Ministry doesn’t differentiate between killed fighters and civilians.
Amid the human suffering, Saudi Arabia said it sees “a vital role” for the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
However, Israel moved this week to ban the UNRWA after a U.N. investigation concluded that at least nine employees “may have been involved” in last year’s Hamas massacre in Israel.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Cambridge Christian School v. Florida High School Athletic Association, effectively letting stand a lower-court ruling that bars two Christian schools from offering a brief pre-game prayer over a stadium loudspeaker — even though both teams wanted the prayer and the event was between two private Christian schools.
President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that the United States will move forward with selling advanced F-35 stealth fighters to Saudi Arabia, announcing the decision just one day before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives at the White House for a high-profile visit aimed at deepening economic, technological, and defense cooperation.
The UN Security Council voted 13-0 on Monday to adopt a sweeping U.S.-drafted resolution that codifies President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, endorses a new International Stabilization Force (ISF), and formally recognizes the establishment of a “Board of Peace” to be chaired by Trump himself. Russia and China abstained, allowing the measure to pass without a veto.
Questions have been raised about the future of one of Europe’s largest on-shore natural-gas reserves after parts of the Dutch province of Groningen were struck by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded there.
Gunmen abducted 25 students from a girls’ school in northwest Nigeria early Monday after killing at least one staff member, adding to fears among the nation’s Christian minority, police and other sources confirmed.
South Africa has launched an investigation after 153 Palestinians unexpectedly arrived on a chartered flight at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport last week, prompting questions over who organized the journey and whether any fleeing Hamas fighters or officials may have been among them.
A planned auction of more than 600 Holocaust-era artifacts was cancelled in Germany after an outcry from survivors, victims’ families, civil society groups, and top government officials.