Israel has a "right" to a homeland alongside the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia's influential crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said on Monday in an interview with US magazine The Atlantic.

Asked whether the "Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their ancestral homeland," bin Salman said: "I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land."

Read more: Israel and Saudi Arabia: New best friends in the Middle East?

Riyadh has sponsored an initiative supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2002, but Salman is the first senior official to explicitly acknowledge Israel's right to any territory in the region.

The 32-year-old prince, who is widely seen as Saudi Arabia's de facto leader and a reformer, added that "we have to have a peace agreement [between Palestinians and Israelis] to assure the stability for everyone."

Read more: The crown prince and the generation gap

The German Israeli Society welcomed what it described as the "very reasonable position" taken by the Crown Prince. "Israel would, of course, have a strong partner on its side with Saudi Arabia, if indeed this is the overall political view and not only that of the Crown Prince," society president Hellmut Königshaus told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio station. However, Königshaus added a note of caution. "He is just one person, and Saudi society has still not come that far."

Warming up to each other

Saudi Arabia does not officially recognize Israel and has said any normalization of relations requires Israel to withdraw its claim to Palestinian territory seized during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

But the crown prince's acknowledgment marks the latest sign that diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Tel Aviv are growing closer amid their common opposition to regional rival Iran.

Saudi Arabia opened its airspace in March for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel and in November an Israeli Cabinet member confirmed speculation of back-channel communication between the two countries when he admitted that he had secret contacts in Riyadh.

Read more: Israel caught between the fronts of Saudi Arabia's conflict with Iran

Saudi Arabia: Reforms or just power games? Formation of an anti-corruption committee Dozens of princes, former ministers and prominent businessmen have been detained across Saudi Arabia in an unprecedented anti-corruption campaign. The arrests happened after King Salman ordered the creation of an anti-corruption committee, headed by his son, Crown Prince Mohammed.

Saudi Arabia: Reforms or just power games? Reforming the country or silencing potential rivals? The newly formed committee possesses wide ranging powers, including the ability to issue arrest warrants, freeze assets and impose travel bans. Saudi Arabia's crown prince has vowed to fight corruption in the world's top oil exporter. Thirty-two-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud is widely regarded as the driving force behind opening up the ultra-conservative country.

Saudi Arabia: Reforms or just power games? One of Middle East’s richest in hot waters One of the arrested, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, is a billionaire and business tycoon who has extensive investments in Western companies such as Twitter, Apple, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, Citigroup, the Four Seasons hotel chains and the ride sharing service Lyft. One of the Middle East's richest persons, Prince Alwaleed, is also known for being one of the most outspoken Saudi royals.

Saudi Arabia: Reforms or just power games? 'Homeland will not exist unless corruption is uprooted' The detainees include ex-finance minister Ibrahim al-Assaf and former head of the royal court Khaled al-Tuwaijri. Three former state officials were also sacked earlier before being detained. "The homeland will not exist unless corruption is uprooted and the corrupt are held accountable," said a royal degree connected to the arrests.

Saudi Arabia: Reforms or just power games? Too much happening too quickly In other developments, the Saudi monarch removed the prominent prince in charge of the National Guard. The development followed the resignation of a close ally, Lebanon's prime minister Saad Hariri. These political developments further shake up Saudi Arabia and the greater Middle East as regional conflicts rage on the kingdom's borders. Author: Aasim Saleem



On one condition

Speaking with The Atlantic, bin Salman said he had no "religious objection" to Israelis and Palestinians living together in any permanent settlement.

But any settlement with Israel would, he added, need to ensure protection for the main Islamic holy site in Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa mosque.

The crown prince, who is in line to succeed his 82-year-old father, King Salman, said: "This is what we have. We don't have any objection against any other people."

Read more: Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman: Reformer and hard-liner

'Hitler of the Middle East'

Bizarrely, Salman went on to compare Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to German dictator Adolf Hitler, going so far as to say Khamenei was worse.

"I believe that the Iranian supreme leader makes Hitler look good," said bin Salman. "Really?" the interviewer exclaimed, before allowing bin Salman to continue.

"Hitler tried to conquer Europe. This is bad," said bin Salman. He added: "The supreme leader is trying to conquer the world. He believes he owns the world. They are both evil guys. He is the Hitler of the Middle East."

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