A senior Israeli official is saying that Saudi Arabia will not be signing any peace agreement with Israel unless progress is made on the Palestinian issue, the London-based Arabic news outlet Elaph reported Thursday.
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The report comes some two months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a secret meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
The report went on to say that the unnamed source had told Elaph reporter Majdi Halabi that attempts to present Israeli-Saudi normalization as just around the corner were likely motivated by personal or political considerations.
The source said that Israeli relations with the Saudis had changed, and revealed that the Saudis had entirely cut off contact with Israel. According to the report, even American-mediated indirect communication had stopped, due to the meeting between Netanyahu and bin Salman being leaked. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan denied that the meeting took place.
Elaph reported that Saudi Arabia had not been satisfied with the denial alone and had stopped all behind-the-scenes contact and coordination in an attempt to punish Israel, which caused discord among Israel's top political and defense officials.
The source quoted in the report went on to say that American attempt to pressure Saudi Arabia into signing a normalization agreement with Israel had not succeeded.
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