A senior Israeli official told Israel Hayom on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not "change his longstanding and principled stance on the Palestinian issue" for the sake of normalization with Saudi Arabia despite reports that it demands "significant progress" be made in Israeli-Palestinian relations before such a deal is struck.
The senior official added that despite this position, "Israel will not take any step that would hurt a future agreement" with Saudi Arabia, perhaps referring to the construction of homes in the area known as E1 just east of Jerusalem, which has been put off for many years.
According to the official, "a breakthrough with Riyadh depends on the talks between the kingdom and Washington. This [progress with the Palestinians] is the consideration that the Saudis are demanding, but the issue is not a high priority for them." The conventional wisdom among officials in Jerusalem is that Saudi Arabia has only made such a condition because the US has been raising this issue, and therefore, Riyadh cannot afford to appear to be less interested in this.
US officials, who last week traveled to Saudi Arabia Jeddah to bolster efforts to broker a normalization deal between the Gulf state and Israel, told colleagues that the talks went well, The New York Times reported Saturday.
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According to the Times, the officials expressed "cautious optimism" about the progress on the deal if diplomatic engagements continue. The report noted that while no breakthrough was announced, the fact that President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan returned to Saudi Arabia shortly after talks in May, signaled that the White House saw "serious prospects for an accord."
Video: Gulf leaders arrive in Jeddah for C5 summit. Credit: Reuters
The official US statement following the trip said that the visit aimed "to discuss bilateral and regional matters, including initiatives to advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous, and stable Middle East region interconnected with the world." Biden himself said earlier on Friday that "there's a rapprochement maybe under way" between Jerusalem and Jeddah.
A senior Israeli official told The New York Times that Jerusalem was not part of the talks but relied on Washington's promise of full transparency and regular updates. According to the report, Saudis demand a NATO-level defense alliance with the US, a civilian nuclear program and "significant progress" on the Palestinian issue.
A potential deal would reportedly require Israel to take concrete steps toward Palestinians, with King Salman himself intervening, rather than just promising to freeze settlement expansion.
The US has its own list of demands, such as coordinating on oil prices, putting the pressure on Moscow amid the war in Ukraine, and pulling it away from the emerging partnership with China.
Part of this article was first published by i24NEWS.
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