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.
With the kingdom unwilling to move ahead while Israel pursues its retaliatory campaign in Gaza, US officials believe Saudi normalisation might be one of the only incentives left for a ceasefire.
President Joe Biden and his political heir Vice President Kamala Harris, who is in a razor-sharp race for the White House on November 5, have faced criticism from the left of their Democratic Party for not exerting greater leverage on Israel, such as cutting off the billions of dollars in US arms.
On a recent visit to Israel, Senator Lindsey Graham — a Republican close to candidate Donald Trump — said it would be easiest for the US Senate to approve a deal related to Saudi-Israel normalisation in the remaining months of Biden’s presidency.
The Biden administration has negotiated a package for Saudi Arabia in exchange for normalisation that would include security guarantees from the United States.
‘Incredible opportunity’
Blinken in Israel said he told Netanyahu that the time has come to end the Gaza conflict as Israel has largely achieved its strategic aims, especially since it killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar last week.
He called for Israel to choose the path of “a country that’s integrated — working — with its Arab partners, accepted by them, isolating Iran and those who are trying to disrupt and destroy people’s lives”.
When Trump was president in 2020, Israel sealed deals with the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain, its first normalisation with Arab states in decades.
Netanyahu has cast Israel as a partner of the Gulf Arab states in their shared hostility towards Iran, which backs Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
But US officials say they are realistic that Saudi Arabia is unlikely to budge without real progress by Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
Last month, Prince Mohammed hardened his tone, stating clearly that Saudi Arabia would not recognise Israel without an independent Palestinian state.
Biden took office vowing to isolate the crown prince due to human rights concerns.
That rhetoric has dramatically changed at the end of his term, with the State Department saying that Blinken “expressed appreciation for Saudi Arabia’s role in promoting stability and peace in the region”.