Two of US President Joe Biden’s top advisers arrived in Israel to update Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the administration’s meetings in Saudi Arabia, amid talk in Jerusalem and Washington of normalization with Riyadh.
White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk and Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security Amos Hochstein arrived in Israel from Jeddah, where they were part of a delegation led by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Saturday and Sunday.
They met with Netanyahu, who has said advancing relations with Saudi Arabia is a priority, and with National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. In addition, they met with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken later that day about “advancing additional normalization steps,” according to Cohen’s office.
A source with ties to the Saudi royal family said that “nothing will happen without Israeli-Palestinian engagement and with this Israeli government in particular.”
Is there progress on Israel-Saudi normalization?
The flight path McGurk and Hochstein took from Saudi Arabia to Israel may be an indication that not much has moved on the normalization front and they could not take a truly direct flight to Israel. Their plane took a detour, flying over the Mediterranean, before making a sharp turn towards Israel, as though they were flying to Cyprus and suddenly changed their mind.
Hanegbi said Israel is “very, very hopeful there will be a breakthrough” in Saudi-Israel normalization ahead of Sullivan’s visit.
“What is important is that the United States leads a move adding Saudi Arabia to the Abraham Accords – normalization and peace with Israel. If that happens, it will be a historic turning point,” Hanegbi told Channel 13.
“What is important is that the United States leads a move adding Saudi Arabia to the Abraham Accords – normalization and peace with Israel. If that happens, it will be a historic turning point.”
Tzachi Hanegbi
One advance that Jerusalem hopes could take place is direct flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
Sullivan said on Thursday that the Biden administration has “the interest and the bandwidth to promote normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia... Getting to full normalization is a declared national security interest of the United States – we have been clear about that.”
Sullivan told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Thursday that “as a sign of my seriousness about how much we are focused on this and how seriously we are taking this, I’m not going to say anything further lest I upset the efforts we are undertaking on this issue.”
The US national security advisor met with his Saudi, Emirati and Indian counterparts in Jeddah to discuss a “shared vision of a secure and prosperous Middle East interconnected with India and the world.”
During his speech to the Washington Institute think tank, Sullivan highlighted a very similar forum, the I2U2, meant to promote cooperation between the same countries, but with Israel instead of Saudi Arabia.
“If you remember nothing else from my speech, remember I2U2, because you will be hearing more about it as we go forward,” Sullivan said.
The Indian Embassy in Israel did not comment as to whether Delhi is playing a role in encouraging Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization.