The world has failed Gaz

The world has failed Gaz

Host Saudi Arabia reiterated its call for a Palestinian state at the World Economic Summit

Saudi Arabia said Sunday that the international community had failed Gaza and reiterated its call for a Palestinian state at a global economic summit attended by a host of mediators.

"The situation in Gaza is clearly a disaster on every measure - humanitarian, but also a total failure of the existing political system to deal with that crisis," Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on the first day of the Saudi-hosted world. Special meeting of the Economic Forum.

Only "a credible, irreversible path to a Palestinian state" will prevent the world from facing "this same situation two, three, four years down the line."

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Palestinian leaders and senior officials from other countries trying to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are attending the summit in Riyadh, the world's biggest crude oil exporter.

Since October 7, Israeli attacks have killed at least 34,454 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

In a speech in Riyadh, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the United States was the only country to stop Israel's long-feared offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

"We are appealing to the United States to ask Israel to stop the Rafah operation," he said, warning that it would harm and displace civilians and was "the biggest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people."

Earlier on Sunday, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Zadan called for regional "stability", warning of the war's impact on global economic sentiment.

"I think cold-headed countries and leaders and people need to be conquered," Zadan said.

Diplomatic efforts to reach a long-sought ceasefire and hostage-release deal in Gaza appeared to intensify, as Hamas said it would respond to Israel's latest offer on Monday.

"There is now some new momentum in the negotiations around the hostages, and ... a possible way out of the impasse we are facing in Gaza," WEF President Borje Brende said on Saturday.

Israel is not participating in the conference.

The US State Department said Blinken would "discuss ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza that would secure the release of the hostages".

Prince Faisal said any reconstruction plan for Gaza would require a durable political solution to the conflict.

"The idea that we can talk about half measures and discuss, 'Well where are the 2.5 million people in Gaza going to go?' Without addressing how we're going to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again, I think that's frankly ridiculous," he said.

"And anyone who tries to take that approach I think is sincerely misguided."

From the beginning, Saudi Arabia has worked with other regional and global powers to try to contain the war in Gaza and avoid the kind of conflagration that could derail its ambitious economic reform agenda known as Vision 2030.

The kingdom is also negotiating a landmark deal under which it will recognize Israel for the first time while strengthening its security partnership with Washington, although analysts say that has made the battle more difficult.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines, is trying to open up to the world by luring business leaders and non-religious tourists.

Hosting international events such as the WEF meeting allows it to showcase social changes such as reopening cinemas and lifting the ban on women driving.

Yet questions remain as to how much of Vision 2030 will be achieved and when, with a particular focus on signature projects like NEOM, a planned futuristic megacity. 

In December, Zadan said officials had decided to push the deadline for some major projects past 2030, without specifying which ones, though he also noted that others would be accelerated.

Saudi Arabia is projecting a budget deficit through 2026, and GDP growth was roughly flat last year after several oil production cuts.

Zadan stressed on Sunday that non-oil GDP growth was "very healthy" at 4.4 percent and that "Vision 2030 is, in fact, non-oil GDP".