Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization delayed by US election results – WSJ
Aides said the Crown Prince would prefer to save such a deal for the incoming administration.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
During a secret trip to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly failed to reach a normalization agreement due to the recent US election results. Bin Salman reportedly prefers to save such an announcement to help establish ties with the incoming US administration, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
According to the WSJ, Saudi aides said the prince would be reluctant to announce such a deal during an outgoing administration, when he could use such a deal later to help Saudi Arabia cement relations with President-elect Joe Biden, with whom bin Salman is reportedly eager to begin building ties.
Netanyahu flew to the Saudi city of Neom on Sunday along with his military secretary, Brig.-Gen. Avi Bluth, and Mossad Director Yossi Cohen.
According to earlier WSJ reporting, the secret meeting involved discussions on the topics of normalization and Iran, but no agreements had been reached.
Though Washington has been selling Riyadh billions in military hardware, the US has been bound to preserve Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME) in the Middle East before selling any advanced weaponry to regional states.
But this summer, following normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced an arms package to UAE valued at almost $23.4 billion, which includes F-35 stealth fighter jets, drones with anti-submarine warfare kits, stealth cruise missiles and more.
Saudi Arabia is not expected to sign any normalization deal without a similar package, or one that might even top it.
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Arms sales to Saudi Arabia are somewhat controversial, as the kingdom has an atrocious human rights record and is leading an alliance of Arab states (including the UAE) in a war against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. That war has sparked one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world and has led to dozens of countries imposing bans on arms sales to the Saudis.
Anna Ahronheim contributed to this article.
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/saudi-aides-say-us-election-delayed-potential-israel-normalization-wsj-650483.