As a sign of warming ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) became the second Israeli cabinet minister ever to visit Riyadh when he landed there on Monday to attend a Universal Postal Union (UPU) conference.
He followed in the footsteps of Tourism Minister Haim Katz (Likud), who was in Riyadh last week to attend a conference of the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
The barrier to official Israeli representation, however, was broken earlier in September, when a lower-level delegation attended the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Conference.Karhi is set to address the UPU’s fourth Extraordinary Congress on Wednesday, which is open to the UPU’s 192 member states.
Shlomo Karhi's response to the allegations
A delegation from the Israel Postal Company had been expected to join him but chose to attend the event virtually, Karhi’s office announced.
The Extraordinary Congress, a plenipotentiary meeting of the UPU’s 192 member countries, will decide on several key proposals aimed at ensuring a sustainable future for international postal services.
By hosting the conference, Saudi Arabia had signaled its “commitment to strengthen collaboration among member states, develop delivering postal services, promote e-commerce, stimulate the digital economy, and incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their postal and logistical operations,” Saudi Transportation Minister Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser told the attendees on Sunday.
Enhancing postal services through third-party private companies is among the topics the conference is set to discuss.
Karhi recently come under scrutiny while implementing the nearly two-year-old plan to completely privatize the Israel Postal Company.
“The Government of Israel, through the Government Companies Authority, hereby announces that it is considering selling, by way of private sale, 100% of the shares of Israel Postal Company,” a government statement said in July.Karhi’s visit comes as Washington and Riyadh continue to work on a security pact that would include the normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia as well as a possible interim agreement with the Palestinians.
At a Sukkot event on Sunday evening, Energy Minister Israel Katz (Likud) addressed the pending deal. He predicted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would bring about a historic deal with Saudi Arabia, recalling that he was the first person to put forward the idea of a railroad project that would link Israel and the Gulf states in 2018.
This year, Netanyahu has spoken of linking Israel’s railway with a larger regional one. The United States unveiled a plan for an energy corridor, called the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which would link India with Europe through Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
“For years, I worked together with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu around the clock, mostly behind the scenes, cultivating a dream that seemed almost unattainable – the ‘peace train’ that would bridge distances,” Katz said. “We dreamed a dream: a train that would bridge distances and gaps and connect Israel and the Gulf countries to Europe and even to distant India. I continued to promote the initiative as foreign minister, and when I took the helm as finance minister, I worked to promote it and made sure to incorporate it into the Abraham Accords.”
Katz referenced the 2020 Abraham Accords, under whose auspices four Arab states agreed to normalize ties with Israel: the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
“In my current position, I worked with the various parties to promote an energy infrastructure corridor that would be established along the railway axis and connect the Gulf countries with Israel and the country,” he said.