Saudi Arabia Issues Firm Warning Against Renegotiating Gaza Ceasefire Terms
Senior diplomat insists altering core definitions risks derailing the peace process and undermining the path to Palestinian statehood.
Saudi Arabia has issued a stark warning to the international community against attempts to redefine or renegotiate the terms of the Gaza ceasefire, arguing that such moves threaten to sidetrack the entire peace process.
Speaking at the Doha Forum 2025 on Sunday, Manal Radwan, a senior diplomat at the Saudi Foreign Ministry, emphasized that the framework agreed upon and enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution must be preserved. “We cannot go back and redefine what we mean by ceasefire, what we mean even by disarmament, what we mean by a Palestinian-led process in governing Gaza,” she stated.
Radwan cautioned that getting bogged down in redefining key principles would shift focus to tactical details at the expense of the conflict’s core political solution. “We lose sight of the overall and the core of the conflict,” she warned.
Central to her argument was the insistence that Gaza cannot be treated as an isolated crisis. “Gaza is about the Palestinian conflict. It is not just about Gaza,” Radwan said, stressing that any temporary humanitarian or security measure will fail without a clear political objective. That objective, she affirmed, must be the realization of a Palestinian state, which she called essential for regional security and integration.
“We have seen this movie before,” Radwan remarked, referencing cycles of violence followed by international engagement that fades into political fatigue. She argued that without fulfilling Palestinian political aspirations, no plan can prevent another, potentially more violent, spiral of conflict.
The path forward, according to the Saudi official, depends on three pillars: preserving the agreed ceasefire framework, preventing backsliding on definitions, and ensuring every implementation step remains linked to the ultimate goal of Palestinian statehood.
The ceasefire, which began on October 10, halted a two-year war that resulted in massive casualties and destruction in Gaza. Its first phase involves hostage and prisoner exchanges, with later stages aimed at reconstruction and establishing a new governance mechanism for the territory.
Source: Address by Saudi Foreign Ministry’s Manal Radwan at Doha Forum 2025.
