Recent visits by high-ranking US officials to Saudi Arabia indicate warming ties and discussions about potential Saudi recognition of Israel; Palestinian officials expect Riyadh will insist on an independent Palestinian state.
Analysts say that a spate of high-profile visits by US officials to Saudi Arabia underscores how ties have warmed amid talks over a potential deal that would see the Gulf kingdom recognize Israel.
Less than a year after US President Joe Biden warned of unspecified “consequences” for Riyadh during a dispute over oil supply, he is dispatching top aides to meet Saudi royals at a rapid clip.
Over the weekend, his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, landed in Jeddah for a summit on Ukraine, his third visit to Saudi Arabia in just a few months.
While bilateral sessions, including during a three-day tour by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June, have touched on topics from terrorism to Yemen, the prospect of normalizing Saudi-Israeli ties has been a mainstay agenda item, fuelling rosier exchanges even if it is still seen as a long shot.
“US-Saudi ties have warmed unquestionably in recent months,” said Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the government.
“Dialogue has just gotten much more extensive and friendly, and this subject is driving that.”
The hurdles to an actual deal remain high: Riyadh is reportedly bargaining hard for benefits like security guarantees and assistance with a civilian nuclear program with uranium enrichment capacity.
And Saudi officials have long vowed not to normalize relations with Israel before the conflict with the Palestinians has been resolved.
The new US-Saudi closeness has not gone unnoticed elsewhere, including among Palestinian officials, who hope Riyadh will insist on an independent Palestinian state.
“I hope that the Saudis will stick to that position and not yield to any kind of pressure, intimidation, coming from the Biden administration or any other power outside of that,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said last week.
Alghannam said Riyadh needs to know whether the Israelis are “actively working towards making tangible progress on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
