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JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held secret talks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday (November 22) 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 broadcaster 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 Pompeo and MBS in the city of Neom,” referring to the initials. of Prince Mohammed that are used frequently.
The reported meeting came weeks after Israel agreed to landmark US-brokered agreements to normalize ties with two Saudi allies in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, pacts known as the Abraham Accords.
Several other Israeli media outlets reported on a Netanyahu trip to Saudi Arabia, including prominent diplomatic correspondent Barak Ravid of Walla News and Axios, who reported that Netanyahu and Cohen flew in a plane belonging to Israeli businessman Udi Angel.
Ravid also cited data from the flight tracker that apparently showed Angel’s plane leaving Israel at 8 p.m. Sunday (2 a.m. Monday Singapore time), heading to Neom on the Red Sea, and returning to Israel five hours. after.
Netanyahu’s office was not immediately available to comment on the reports.
Saudi Arabia’s royal court and media ministry did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on the alleged meeting between Netanyahu, Prince Mohammed and Pompeo.
Pompeo had traveled to Neom on Sunday from the United Arab Emirates as part of a tour of the Middle East.
The Abraham Accords 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. Sudan has agreed to do so in principle.
In late August, Netanyahu said that Israel was holding secret talks with several Arab countries.
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.
Israeli experts have raised questions about the prospects for expanding the Abraham Accords under the administration of US President-elect Joe Biden, particularly with regard to Saudi Arabia.
LEE: Pompeo encourages Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel
The Trump administration downplayed the role of human rights in international diplomacy and, in particular, was cautious in criticizing Saudi Arabia’s rights record, in particular over the murder by Saudi agents of the prominent royal journalist and critic. Saudi Jamal Khashoggi.
Several Israeli analysts have said that a Biden administration, which will face pressure from the progressive left in the Democratic Party, would suffer a backlash if it pushed for a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia without any significant rights reform agreed to by Saudi Arabia.
Given that Trump’s term will end on January 20 next year, some Israeli experts have speculated that Washington would push hard for a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia before Biden takes office.
Israel and the Arab Gulf state have engaged in silent diplomacy for years over their common enemy, Iran.
