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Newly-appointed Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in his appointment speech that Israel still aims to achieve peace and normalization with the Arab world, and that it must also seek out natural alliances with national, ethnic, and religious minorities throughout the Middle East, particularly since Israel is itself a minority population in the region. He gave the example of the Kurds, who he pointed out are repressed by Iran and Turkey, as well as of the Druze minorities in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel itself. The speech was posted to Saar’s YouTube channel on November 10, 2024.
Gideon Saar: "Our ambition to expand the scope of peace and normalization with the Arab world is unchanged. I hope that we will succeed in doing so with Saudi Arabia and other countries. We have not given up on this, but we also need to closely examine the area surrounding us, and to build and strike strong alliances, and I wish to emphasize the minorities in the region in which we live.
"The Kurdish nation – a big nation, comprising approximately 40 million people – is one of the largest nations in the world – if not the biggest in the world – that is not politically independent. It is a natural ally of us. [The Kurds] are a national minority in four different countries. In two of these countries, they enjoy autonomy. In Iraq, it is de facto... Sorry, in Syria it is de facto, and in Iraq it is also de jure, in the Iraqi constitution. They are victims of repression and hostility on the part of Iran and Turkey. We need to extend a hand to them and strengthen our ties with them. This has both political and security-related aspects.
"I follow also the Druze minorities in the neighboring countries, Syria and Lebanon, and we have a powerful alliance with the Druze who are citizens of Israel. Developments in this context must also be assessed, and we must understand that in a region in which we will always be a minority, we can have natural alliances with other minorities."
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