Beirut, Lebanon – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Saudi Arabia on Sunday night for a secret meeting with Israeli Cabinet Minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The visit was the first known meeting between high-level Israeli and Saudi leaders and could signal the gradual warming of relations between the two powers.
The first meeting was reported by Israeli news outlets and was publicly confirmed by Education Minister Yoav Gelant. In a radio interview Monday afternoon.
“The fact that the meeting was held and made public – even if only semi-commercially – is very important,” he said.
Mr Galant added: “Israel’s heartfelt acceptance by the Sunni world.
The visit follows agreements reached by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan to establish formal relations with Israel, with the Trump administration pushing for a boycott of Israel by most Arab states in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The same agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel will be more important because of the size of the state, the wealth and the protection of the holy places of Islam. But there were few indications that such a move was imminent.
Mr Netanyahu was first interviewed by Israeli Army Radio and Kan Public Radio, with unnamed officials citing reports that the prime minister had gone to Nyom with the head of the Mossad spy agency, Yossi Cohen, who is considering the future city of Prince Mohammed. Near the shores of the Red Sea. The reports did not go into detail about the content of the meeting, but noted that the leaders discussed Iran, which both countries see as a major threat to normalization.
Saudi officials and Mr. Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
On Monday, Mr. Netanyahu’s media adviser, Talkies Luke, posted an article on Twitter about the recent move by Mr. Netanyahu’s defense minister and rival, Benny Gentz. Read that one comment“Gentjha peace while the Prime Minister is playing politics,” perhaps hinted at the meeting confirmed.
There are no formal diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and Saudi officials have said they will only be established in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. It was only after the Palestinians gained a statehood that the Saudi Arabian peace initiative in 2002 offered to make Israel completely normal with the Arab world.
But the tone of the state has changed in recent years when it comes to Israel.
Prince Mohammed, 35, the son of a Saudi king and the de facto ruler of the state, has said that both Israel and Palestine have a right to their land and that Israel is overreacting to economic and security interests with Arab states, especially Iran over their shared enmity.
Saudi news outlets have begun publishing articles about Israeli culture and politics, and last month a Saudi satellite channel aired an extensive interview with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington, who slammed the Palestinian leadership.
Saudi Arabia has played a quiet but constructive role in helping the Trump administration’s efforts to begin diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, a senior official said. Last month, Saudi Arabia said it had done so at the request of the Emirates, opening its airspace for commercial flights to and from Israel. Most Arab states block such overflight as part of their Jewish state boycott.
In recent weeks, some Israeli and United States officials have considered a change in the Saudi royal court, which, according to Emirate officials, could make it possible to proceed with the normalization agreement, due to the presence of significant opposition in the emirate, Bahrain. And Sudan over the agreement with Israel.
A key question for the Saudis is whether moving forward with generalizations in the weak days of the Trump administration will affect their standing in Washington and their relationship with President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s incoming administration.
Mr Biden took a hard line on Saudi Arabia during the campaign, withholding American support for the Saudi military in Yemen, imposing fines for human rights violations and treating the Saudis “like Perry.”
He has not elaborated on his approach to the state since winning the election, but analysts say he will have to work largely with the state on issues including stability in oil prices and efforts to include Iran.
Mr Biden is likely to welcome more Saudi-Israeli nationalism, although it is unclear whether his administration, like President Trump, will push for it to try to use the possibility of gains in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Opening diplomatic relations with Israel will help Prince Mohammed and Washington restore their prestige in Washington, lessen criticism of the Saudi war in Yemen, crackdown on activists and the assassination of failed Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 by Saudi agents in Istanbul.
For Mr. Netanyahu, the headlines about possible diplomatic progress covered by the Israeli media breath-taking – provide a welcome deviation from an unpleasant story: Mr. Netanyahu’s millionaire – the composition of the government’s inquiry commission’s defense minister, Benny Gentz. Dollar purchase of submarines and missile boats, one episode of which is described as the worst corruption scandal in Israeli history.
Mr Netanyahu’s regular visit came after the end of the Virtual Group’s 20th summit meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia over the weekend and with a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with Prince Mohammed on Sunday night. Mr. pompionum was 8:30 pm the plane landed niyomamam night and went off three hours later.
Mr Netanyahu was not mentioned in the State Department statement about the visit.
The website Flightradar24, which provides live flight tracking, showed a flight from Tel Aviv around 7.30pm on Monday that landed on the radar near Neom about an hour later. The same plane reappeared and flew back to Tel Aviv after midnight.
Avi Scarf, the English-language editor of the Israeli newspaper Harez, posted a map of the first flight on Twitter on Monday.
“Absolutely rare Israeli flight is direct to the new Saudi megacity Nyom on the Red Sea coast,” Mr Richef wrote.
Ben Hubbard from Beirut, David M. Isabel Kerschner contributed to the report from Jerusalem.
