RIYADH: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday sought to make headway with Saudi Arabia on normalisation with Israel, hoping a potentially historic deal will offer incentives to end the war in Gaza.
The top US diplomat flew directly from Tel Aviv in Israel to the Saudi capital Riyadh, a mere two-hour flight impossible on commercial airliners, on a tour of the Middle East days before the US election.
Speaking to reporters on the tarmac in Tel Aviv, Blinken urged keeping “eyes on the strategic prize” of Israel-Saudi normalisation as his efforts for a Gaza ceasefire ground on with no immediate breakthrough in sight.
“There remains, despite everything that’s happened, an incredible opportunity in this region to move in a totally different direction,” Blinken said before boarding his US government plane.
“Saudi Arabia would be right at the heart of that, and that includes potentially normalisation of relations with Israel,” he added.
Blinken met at the Riyadh airport with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and later spoke for an hour with the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The State Department in a statement said Blinken and the prince discussed “the need to end the war in Gaza” as well as efforts to build “lasting regional stability, including through greater integration among countries in the region”.
Recognition by Saudi Arabia would be seen as a turning point in acceptance of Israel as the kingdom is guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.
Before Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had spoken in glowing terms of the prospects for ties with Saudi Arabia.
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