Middle East Inside Line: Saudi Arabia's al-Faisal "Israel is Like a Spoiled Child"

On Saturday, after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Prof. Ahmet Davutoglu, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal criticized Israel, blaming international actors for "spoiling" Israel in the region with their "unjust treatment":

The reason why a solution cannot be reached is the preferential treatment that Israel gets. When other countries violate international law, they get punished, except for Israel. If war crimes are committed, other countries get punished, except Israel.

Israel has become in the international community like a spoiled child. It does what it wants without being questioned or punished.

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Faisal said that Tel Aviv's plan to construct 700 apartments in East Jerusalem is "a source of worry, which we strongly condemn". He asserted that Washington and other players should take a "firm and serious" stand to put an end to Israeli construction on land that Palestinians want for a future state.

The statement is the latest attempted pressure from Al-Faisal, who had also proposed to Barack Obama, before the US President's Cairo speech this spring, that the US should use economic and military assistance to get Israeli concessions. The plan would have altered the 2007 Memorandum of Understanding, promising that Israel would receive $30 billion over 10 years, but Washington had already assured Israel that there would be no cut.

For his part, Davutoglu said that Israel should end the "catastrophe and calamity" in the Gaza Strip and should freeze the building of settlements.