Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Neom, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, a senior official has confirmed to Israel Hayom. The official added that Mossad Director Yossi Cohen was at the meeting as well.
The senior officials discussed Jerusalem-Riyadh ties and possibly the signing of a peace deal in the near future.
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Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, who serves as defense minister and prime minister-designate was not appraised of the meeting, nor was Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, the official said. The two were also excluded from the talks with the United Arab Emirates.
Riyadh has yet to officially comments on the reports of the meeting, which was arranged by US Special Representative for Iran Elliot Abrams.
The top Israeli official noted that while Riyadh had initially acquiesced to the have the fact that the meeting took place leaked to the media, the latter broke the story sooner than planned.
The plan was to leak some of the details of the meeting over several hours, but once Israeli media reported the Netanyahu had abruptly canceled a planned cabinet meeting, as well as images of the presumed flight path of the plane that took him and Cohen to Neom, the information was made public in its entiretly.
Earlier Monday, Israeli intelligence website Intellitimes reported that a plane had departed from Israel on Sunday afternoon for Neom, Saudi Arabia, where it remained for several hours on the tarmac before returning home. Although not Israeli, the plane had at one point been designated to fly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the signing ceremony of the peace accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Washington in October.
Both US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu have in recent weeks said additional Arab states were interested in signing accords with Israel. On Sunday, Pompeo said other Arab states could join the Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia for its part has declared it would only enter into an accord with Israel once Jerusalem had signed a deal with the Palestinians.
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