New Delhi, Oct. 23 -- Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday (October 23) expressed regret for what he called his "unfortunate" remarks about Saudi Arabia after facing backlash.

Smotrich had earlier made a controversial comment suggesting that Saudi Arabia could "keep riding camels" if it demanded the creation of a Palestinian state in exchange for normalising ties with Israel.

"If Saudi Arabia tells us normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state, friends, no thank you," Smotrich said at a conference in Israel.

"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."

The remarks were quickly co...