“Keep riding camels”: Smotrich says he regrets remarks about Saudi Arabia

‘Israel's’ far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday expressed regret for what he called his "unfortunate" remarks about Saudi Arabia.

He had earlier told Saudi Arabia it could "keep riding camels" if it tried to demand an independent Palestinian state in return for normalising relations with ‘Israel’.

"My statement regarding Saudi Arabia was unfortunate, and I regret any offence it may have caused," Smotrich said in a video statement he posted on X.

But he said that he also expected Saudis not to offend ‘Israel’.

"I'm also not willing to accept hypocrisy. Just as I don’t intend to offend the Saudis, I expect from them not to offend me, or rather, offend us," he said.

"And anyone who denies the living and very deep connection we have to the regions of our homeland in Judea and Samaria, offends us," he added, using the’ Israeli’ Biblical term for the occupied West Bank.

Smotrich, who lives in a West Bank settlement, is an outspoken supporter of annexing the Palestinian territory, which has been occupied by ‘Israel’ since 1967.

Earlier on Thursday, he had told a conference in ‘Israel’ that, "if Saudi Arabia tells us normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state, friends, no thank you".

"Keep riding camels on the sand in the Saudi desert; we'll keep truly developing -- with an economy, a society, a state and all the great and wonderful things we know how to do", Smotrich said, prompting sharp responses in ‘Israel’.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid had swiftly denounced the comments.

"To our friends in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, Smotrich does not represent the State of Israel", Lapid posted on X in Arabic, later calling for him to apologise.

Former defence minister Benny Gantz, another opposition figure, said that Smotrich's comments "indicate ignorance, and a lack of internalisation of his responsibility as a senior minister in the government and cabinet".

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalised relations with ‘Israel’ in 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

But Saudi Arabia's own normalisation talks with ‘Israel’ were frozen after the ‘Israeli’ two-year-long assault on the Gaza Strip.