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Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was confirmed to have flown to Saudi Arabia and met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) last weekend. The meeting will be the first widely confirmed visit to Saudi Arabia by an Israeli leader.
Quoted from Reuters On the Tuesday (11/24/2020) launched by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, flight tracking data showed that a commercial jet had made a short trip from Tel Aviv to Neom. It is a new futuristic city on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia that was specially started by MBS.
The meeting was also attended by the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo. He is very active in pressuring several Muslim countries in the Middle East to normalize their relationship with Israel, after the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan opened diplomatic doors with the Jewish state.
Launching The Wall Street Journal Citing one of Saudi Arabia’s top advisers, the leaders met for hours and discussed various topics, including normalization of relations and Iran. However, no substantial agreement has been reached.
Pompeo tweeted when he visited Neom. But he did not mention the presence of Israel.
Still, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud denied it. According to him, there was no Israel in Pompeo’s visit.
“I have seen press reports about the alleged meeting between His Majesty the Crown Prince and Israeli officials during a recent visit by @SecPompeo. No such meeting took place. The only officials present were Americans and Saudis,” he wrote on Twitter.
The same was also expressed by Netanyahu in his country. “Are you serious? My friends, in all these years I have never commented on such things and I do not intend to start doing it now,” he said.
But Yoav Gallant, a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, revealed another code. He told another fact to Army Radio.
“The fact that the meeting has been held and made known to the public, even though it is now declared semi-official, is still a very serious matter,” he said.
Even Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, in his speech, condemned “the irresponsible leak of secret flights to Saudi Arabia.”
Since August, Riyadh has allowed Israeli airlines to cross Saudi territory to destinations in the Gulf countries and Asia. Palestinian militant groups condemned the news about Saudi Arabia’s soft treatment of its enemy, Israel.
The Palestinian Front of Islamic Jihad calls it a “betrayal of blessed Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina.”
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