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The US Secretary of State refuses to deny or confirm the news of the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, despite attempts to interrogate him repeatedly on Fox News, hoping for Saudi normalization and more normalization announcements.
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Pompeo refuses to deny or confirm that Netanyahu knew bin Salman
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to deny or confirm that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi city of Neom, despite attempts by the interviewer. on “Fox News” repeatedly, saying only: “I will let them explain what happened in the meetings that have already taken place. Or not.”
In an interview with “Fox News” after he returned from his overseas tour, and about his expectations of the Saudi initiative for normalization with Tel Aviv, Pompeo replied: “Yes, and I expect more normalization announcements, perhaps within 30-60 days “.
The interlocutor asked him: “Has Iran been close to possessing a nuclear weapon and you and the administration are in your last days?” Pompeo responded that “the expectations of those parties (Biden) are wrong. The previous administration chose to give Iran large sums of money, and we decided to deprive them of it.”
When asked about his biggest foreign policy concerns about the next administration, he replied: “I know some of these people, they had a completely different view. They lived in a somewhat fictional world. They were driving from behind, I hope they choose a course. different”.
Pompeo praised the “Abraham” deals concluded by the Trump administration in the Middle East and “the central recognition of the Chinese Communist Party as a real threat to jobs across the United States.”
“If they preserve these things, I think America’s path will be safer and more prosperous,” he said.
The US Secretary of State also dismissed former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ criticism of US President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy approach, describing it as “completely wrong.”
After Israeli Army Radio revealed that a meeting was held in Saudi Arabia last Sunday that included Netanyahu and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia in the presence of Pompeo, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, denied that “ there was a meeting that took place in the presence of Israeli officials in the country. ”
Regarding the Saudi denial, the newspaper “Yediot Aharonot” said: “This denial does not mean that the meeting did not take place, but the point is that the Saudis are very ashamed to announce this meeting.
He continued: “As has often been reported, there are Israelis and Saudis at various political, diplomatic and intelligence levels who have been meeting for years.”
He noted that “in” Israel “and Saudi Arabia are preparing for the era of President-elect Joe Biden, and if there is concern in” Israel “about the new administration in Washington, then in Saudi Arabia there are real concerns.
“Yediot Aharonot” also saw that Bin Salman is convinced that the “CIA” intends to liquidate him, at least politically, and return the beloved crown prince, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, who put bin Salman under house arrest after that took away his crown prince status.
After that, the head of the Israeli “National Security” Research Institute, Reserve Major General Amos Yadlin, said: “The Saudi Foreign Minister denied Netanyahu’s meeting with bin Salman because he represented other foreign ministers. from the region who did not know about the meeting. ”
Simultaneously, the newspaper “Israel Hayom” said that bin Salman agreed to publish the news of the meeting with Netanyahu to discuss the reactions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab world.
The newspaper confirmed that a source related to senior officials in Saudi Arabia told them that “this meeting is not the first between Netanyahu and Bin Salman, and that such meetings were held recently, and that meeting participants agreed to release their details to broadcast. messages to the new administration in the United States “. “.
The Israeli newspaper “Jerusalem Post” said that the secret flight to Saudi Arabia could have remained under the radar, with the transmitter and receiver turned off, but the trip by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was public. And for specific reasons.
Channel 12 quoted a “high-level” Israeli political source as saying that “the Saudis have made it clear that they are not yet ripe for normalization with Israel.”
This came after Israeli media revealed the meeting, saying that “during the meeting of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and Pompeo, two secret Israeli trips departed from” Israel “to Saudi Arabia.
The Israeli website Channel Seven also announced that “a secret flight to Saudi Arabia took off on Sunday from Ben Gurion airport to Saudi Arabia and stayed for 4 hours to be exact, at the time when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was meeting with the Saudi crown prince. “
The “Yediot Aharonot” website said the plane that took off from Ben Gurion airport to Saudi Arabia had previously been used by Netanyahu, and the site indicated that the latter, accompanied by the Mossad chief, was on board. He noted that Netanyahu, accompanied by the head of the Mossad, met with the Saudi crown prince, and the trip took about 5 hours.
Notably, the UAE and Bahrain signed an agreement with “Israel” to “normalize families” at the White House, in the presence of President Trump, and with the patronage of the United States last month. And there were many reports about the possibility of Saudi Arabia being next on the normalization map with “Israel.”
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