Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “many” people in Saudi Arabia want to normalize relations with Israel, and expressed his hope the Gulf kingdom will join the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab nations.
“I hope that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can find its way to join the Abraham Accords. I know that many inside that country want that to take place,” Pompeo said in a recorded message to the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).
CAM will present the former top diplomat with its first ever Global Leadership Award in recognition of his efforts in the peace deals.
“Predicting the future has proven a struggle for me,” Pompeo said, according to remarks carried by AFP.
He added that he believes “many more” countries will seek to normalize ties with Israel in the future.
Pompeo joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in a secret meeting in November in Neom, Saudi Arabia, Israeli sources said at the time.
Netanyahu, who was accompanied by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, was on the ground for five hours in Neom on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, the reports said.
Around the same time, former President Donald Trump predicted that Saudi Arabia would also normalize ties with Israel.
The Abraham Accords saw four Arab Muslim states — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan — establish ties with Israel.
Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have discussed expanding cooperation against Iran, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday citing sources close to the matter.
The remarks came in the wake of an article by World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder in the Saudi government-affiliated Arab News calling for a “NATO of the Middle East.”
According to Lauder, there are “encouraging voices” among decision-makers in the Middle East.
He writes:
Almost all the Arabs I spoke with said the only ally (against Iran) that they trust without reservation is Israel. And almost all Israelis I spoke with said the only ally (against Iran) that they trust without reservation is the Arab world.
[T]he peace agreements signed in 2020 by Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco have finally ushered in a genuine regional revolution. Other moderate Arab nations that have not yet joined the Abraham Accords are quietly cultivating relations with Israel. As their fears of Iran grow, and their doubts about the West deepen, Arabs and Israelis are growing closer than they have ever been.
Israelis and Arabs should seize the opportunity to work together to save the Middle East from the looming catastrophe of extremism and nuclearization.