Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was not immediately available to comment on the report.
Jerusalem:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held secret talks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, media said, in the first reported trip by an Israeli prime minister to the kingdom.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in Israel last week, was also at the briefed talks, a diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said on Monday.
The station quoted unidentified Israeli officials as saying that Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad spy agency, Yossi Cohen “flew to Saudi Arabia yesterday and met with Pompeo and MBS in the city of Neom,” referring to the initials of Prince Mohammed.
Several other Israeli media outlets reported similar information on Monday morning.
Netanyahu’s office was not immediately available to comment on the reports.
The meeting comes after Israel agreed to landmark agreements to normalize ties with two Saudi allies in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Those deals were negotiated by the outgoing administration of US President Donald Trump.
US and Israeli officials have repeatedly indicated that more Arab states were willing to forge ties with Israel.
Publicly, Saudi Arabia has said it will remain in the decades-old Arab League position of having no ties to Israel until the Jewish state’s conflict with the Palestinians is resolved.
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