Former Saudi Ambassador To The U.S. Prince Bandar Bin Sultan: The Palestinian Leadership Is Full Of Ungrateful Frauds And Liars; The Gulf Countries Need To Look Out For Their Own Interests

Former Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar Bin Sultan said in an interview that aired on October 7, 2020 on Al-Arabiya Network (Dubai/Saudi Arabia) that the Palestinian leadership is ungrateful and disloyal. He criticized it for viewing Turkey and Iran as more important than the Arab countries, and he argued that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries need to look out for their own national, security, social, and economic interests rather than allow the "liars" and "frauds" in the Palestinian leadership treat them poorly. This was the third installment of a three-part interview aired on Al-Arabiya Network, for excerpts from the first installment, see MEMRI TV clip no. 8342.

Bandar Bin Sultan: "The Palestinian leaders' ingratitude and disloyalty that we have witnessed recently will not affect our attachment to the cause of the Palestinian people. Nonetheless, it is hard to trust such people or even consider doing something for Palestine's sake as long as these [leaders] are there. My personal opinion is that we are at a stage — with all that is going on in the world... Instead of being concerned with how to deal with the Israeli challenges in order to serve the Palestinian cause... We also have national security and interests [to take care of]... In addition, some people have shown up­ — people who claim to be serving the Palestinian cause, and that the Palestinian cause and Jerusalem are their top priority. I am talking about countries in the region like Iran and Turkey. The Palestinian leaders have come to believe that Tehran and Ankara are more important than Riyadh, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Manama, Oman, and Cairo. That is not true.

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"Our leaders must protect our national security and the interests of our people — their security, economic interest, welfare, or social interests. Our [Gulf] countries are like islands in a turbulent ocean. We owe it to our people to preserve this state of affairs.

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"We will not allow a bunch of liars, frauds, and disloyal, ungrateful people to treat us the way they treat each other. No! We know our history, and we know their history, as well."