Pak Sahafat – Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power with an extreme cabinet opposed by various groups to pursue the normalization of relations with Arab countries led by Riyadh with a new approach in the field of foreign policy, a goal that experts call ambitious and the unimaginable proximity of the two partners.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, Al-Monitor writes in a report written by Elizabeth Hagedorn: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking full diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, but it seems unlikely that Riyadh will accept normalization in the near future.
Tel Aviv’s Prime Minister’s Office announced that in Thursday’s meeting between Netanyahu and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, the deepening of the “Ibrahim Pact” with an emphasis on progress in the case of Saudi Arabia was on the agenda, and Washington’s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is also likely to visit the occupied territories later this year.
The Biden administration has tried to build on the normalization agreements made under former US President Donald Trump, which established formal diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain and Sudan.
Dan Shapiro, a prominent member of the Atlantic Council and former US ambassador to Israel, said: This (normalization of relations) is a realistic possibility when it serves the interests of all parties.
Sullivan’s visit to the occupied capital comes shortly after the election of the most right-wing government in Tel Aviv’s history, whose ultra-nationalist members have supported the massive expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and changes to the status quo in Jerusalem’s holy sites.
Shapiro said: Any of these steps will be difficult for the Saudis, and perhaps other Arab states, as they move to normalize or deepen their ties with Israel.
Normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel would be a diplomatic breakthrough, although the two sides, which this author says share a common enemy in Iran, have a secret security relationship that dates back to the 1960s.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has taken proactive steps to build behind-the-scenes ties with Israel, including opening Riyadh’s airspace to Israeli commercial flights in July and Joe Biden visiting the coastal city this summer. He visited Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Joe Biden was the first US president to travel there directly from Israel.
This relationship has been moving forward in other ways. In October, the head of one of Israel’s largest banks attended a business forum in Riyadh. In the same month, an Israeli athlete competed in Saudi Arabia for the first time. Last May, dozens of Israeli entrepreneurs and businessmen went to Saudi Arabia for talks with local investment groups.
In a televised appearance, Netanyahu also touted the normalization agenda and described his foreign policy vision for a “really significant historic peace with Saudi Arabia.”
Despite Netanyahu’s push, experts say normalization of relations is unlikely as long as Saudi Arabia’s King Salman remains on the throne. The aging king, although less influential in decision-making today, can still veto normalization. He has long defended the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which called for recognition only in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state and Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan reiterated that position this week, telling Bloomberg that an agreement on the creation of a Palestinian state would be a precondition if Saudi Arabia were to normalize relations with Israel.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s crown prince and potential heir to the Persian Gulf nation’s throne, has referred to Israel as a “potential ally with many interests that we can pursue together.”
Yasmin Farooq, an expert at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, said that Prince Mohammed knows that if Saudi Arabia normalizes, other Arab and Islamic countries will follow suit, which makes [Saudi Arabia] want a return that benefits them and offsets possible backlash.
He said Tel Aviv could accept a short step toward a Palestinian state, especially if it was accompanied by some form of formal security cooperation with the United States.
“He can see how much the Israelis and the Americans want this to happen, so he can wait,” Farooq added.
Bruce Riddle, a Brookings Institution expert on Saudi Arabia and a former CIA analyst, says normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations is unlikely while Biden is still in office, and if they wanted to do it, it would have happened under Trump.