There could be direct flights between Israel and Saudi Arabia this coming March to allow Israeli Arabs to easily make a pilgrimage to Mecca for the Hajj, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen predicted on Tuesday.
“I hope this will happen by March of next year,” Cohen said during a meeting with Bedouins in the Negev.
Cohen spoke amid increased diplomatic activity between Riyadh and Washington to explore the possibility of a security pact between the two countries that would include a normalization pact with Israel.
Politicians in Washington believe that the best chance for such a deal is this year before the 2024 campaign for the White House kicks into full gear. It’s believed that it would be easiest to galvanize bi-partisan support for an agreement during a Biden presidency.
Israel's past efforts to arrange for direct flights to Saudi Arabia
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had hoped it could arrange for direct flights between the two countries, even in advance of the deal, but to date, those efforts have not borne fruit.
Cohen, however, seemed to indicate in his comments that he had spoken with the Saudis about such a possibility.
“One of the things that I told the Saudis is that they should authorize flights from Ben-Gurion (International Airport) to Mecca,” particularly for the Hajj, he said.
His short speech was filmed and published by KAN News,
Cohen said he explained to the Saudis that “This is for Muslims in Israel, who make up 20% of the population.”
What happens now is that Israeli-Arab Muslims have to take a cumbersome route through Jordan which could quadruple costs, Cohen stated.
“The Saudis understand” the economic benefits of normalization with Israel, he said.
Israel and Saudi Arabia, he said, adding that “we are not their enemies we are their partners. Their enemy is Iran,” he said.
On Sunday the government approved a new national railway project, which Netanyahu said, was the first leg of a regional train line that could link Jerusalem and Riyadh.
In an interview with NBC published on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that such a deal with be a quantum leap in regional relations and end the Israeli-Arab conflict.
“Now we have an opportunity to perhaps begin to end the Arab-Israeli conflict with Saudi Arabia,” a step that would bring peace between Muslims and Jews, Netanyahu said.
“I'm not going to get into the specifics of the negotiations of how to achieve it. If it was that easy it would have [already] been done,” Netanyahu said.
He added that he appreciated the Biden administration’s to finalize an Israel-Saudi deal.
“It's really up to Saudi Arabia” to see if there is a middle ground when it comes to the Palestinians, he said.
It’s presumed that Israel would have to make concessions to the Palestinians as part of the deal, but no one has named what that gesture would entail.
The Biden administration has had many of its senior envoys with regard to the Middle East in the last week. White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan, one of Biden’s most trusted aides, was in Jeddah last week with Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, discussing the possibility of a normalization deal.
Senior Advisor for Regional Integration Dan Shapiro visit Israel, Morocco, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt in the last week to advance both the Abraham Accords and the Negev Forum. The latter is a forum of five that includes Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, the US and Egypt.
Shapiro met with Cohen in Jerusalem on Sunday. He lauded the US for its work in brokering both the Abraham Accords, by which Israel normalized ties with four Arab countries and for its convening of the Negev Forum last year.
“The United States and the Biden administration today are the main force operating in favor of continued expansion and deepening of relations with the existing [regional] partners and with new partners such as Saudi Arabia.
“In my conversation with the special envoy Shapiro, we agreed to act in … close cooperation to preserve good relations with the existing partners for the agreements and to increase the circle of peace and normalization with new partnerships in the Middle East and beyond.”
Separately Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs Andrew Miller was in the West Bank on Tuesday. He visited some of the Palestinian villages and towns that have been attacked by Jewish extremists, such as Turmus Aiya, which has a high number of Israeli-Palestinian residents.