No recognition for Israel despite handshake, says Saudi

A senior Saudi diplomat said Sunday his handshake with Israel's deputy foreign minister at a Munich security conference was no step toward recognition of Israel.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the country's former intelligence chief and ex-ambassador to the United States, said his handshake Saturday with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon only came after Ayalon apologized for actions that Turki objected to.

“I objected to sitting on the same panel with him not because he is the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Israel but because of his boorish conduct with the Turkish Ambassador to Israel Ahmet Oğuz Çelikkol,” Agence France-Presse quoted Turki as saying.

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Sunday denied apologizing to Turki before the handshake.

"Everyone who was present at the conference knows there was no apology from the deputy minister to the Saudi prince," read a statement from his office.

In January, Ayalon made a show of publicly humiliating Çelikkol to demonstrate displeasure with a Turkish television show critical of Israel. Ayalon later conceded his behavior toward the envoy had been inappropriate. Israel has apologized for the incident.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also did not want to attend the panel with Ayalon, daily Hürriyet reported Sunday. “The panel was to include both Ayalon and the Saudi prince, Davutoğlu, as well as U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman and senior Egyptian and Russian officials. But the panel has been split into two separate conferences after Davutoğlu’s objection,” Hürriyet said.

Apology for Çelikkol

Turki, who although currently with no official government title continues to carry out diplomatic work for the Saudi government, said the handshake came after Ayalon publicly reprimanded him for not sitting together on a panel at the annual international security conference in Munich.

"Mr. Ayalon then asked me to come up to the podium to shake hands to show that there were no hard feelings," Turki said. "I pointed to him that he should step down from the podium," Turki said. "When we stood face-to-face, he said that he apologized for what he had said and I replied that I accept his apology not only to me but also to the Turkish ambassador."

“My strong objections and condemnations of Israel's policies and actions against the Palestinians remain unchanged. This event should not be taken out of context or misunderstood,” Turki said in a statement received in Riyadh.

Turki also said he objected to Ayalon's allegation that Saudi Arabia has not provided any aid to the Palestinian Authority - when in fact Riyadh has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to the authority.

"It is clear that Israel's Arab neighbors want peace, but they cannot be expected to tolerate what amounts to theft, and certainly should not be pressured into rewarding Israel for the return of land that does not belong to it in the first place," Turki said.