CAIRO, October 21. /TASS/. Saudi Arabia is unlikely to resort to an oil embargo again if it is dissatisfied with the situation around Palestine and Israel's actions, Andrey Baklanov, Vice President of the Russian Committee for Solidarity and Cooperation with the Peoples of Asia and Africa and Deputy Chairman of the Association of Russian Diplomats, said in an interview with TASS.

"No, I don't think there will be a return to 1973, when they imposed an oil embargo (a ban on oil exports to countries that supported Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War - TASS). Saudi Arabia now has other levers of influence, and relations in the region are different. The proposal sounds interesting, but not very realistic," he said, responding to a relevant question.

The diplomat also believes that Saudi Arabia could sponsor the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. According to him, "there are unspoken agreements" on that matter.

"Everyone understands that the return of all Palestinians to their homeland is impossible: whether we like it or not, that's the truth. Then the solution to the problem could be compensation, which Riyadh can offer," Baklanov said.

He recalled that Saudi Arabia already has experience in quickly rebuilding cities devastated by conflict, citing the example of several neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, "well-equipped after the civil war in a very short timeframe with the active participation of Saudi investors." However, the diplomat stressed that for this to happen, "certain political conditions" must be met that would allow Saudi Arabia to begin reconstructing the Palestinian enclave.

On September 14, the Palestinian movement Hamas called on participants in an extraordinary summit of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to take a number of measures against Israel, including "using oil as a weapon." However, following the summit, this step was never implemented.

In October 1973, OPEC member countries declared an oil embargo on countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War (the ban also affected the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, the United States, and Japan). This decision led to the oil crisis of the 1970s, which is still considered one of the largest energy crises in modern history. The embargo was lifted five months later, in March 1974, but this time was enough for the price of oil on world markets to almost quadruple, which, in turn, triggered an economic crisis in industrialized countries and revealed their critical dependence on fuel supplies.