Netanyahu, Mossad chief reportedly visited Saudi Arabia with Pompeo

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The plane returned to Israel after only a few hours.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

NOVEMBER 23, 2020 10:11
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/REUTERS)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/REUTERS)

An executive plane used in the past by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took off from Ben-Gurion Airport to Saudi Arabia on Sunday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, sparking reports that Netanyahu might have traveled to Saudi Arabia.

The plane returned to Israel after only a few hours.

Avi Scharf of the Haaretz newspaper published aviation tracking data showing that a business jet had made a brief trip from Tel Aviv to Neom, on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, where Bin Salman and Pompeo had a scheduled meeting on Sunday.

Israeli media reported that sources in the government stated that Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen were on the flight and met with Pompeo and bin Salman, possibly to discuss normalization or issues concerning Iran.

Pompeo has tried to coax the Gulf powerhouse to follow its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in establishing formal relations with Israel – a rapprochement built largely on shared concerns about Iran.
Riyadh has so far declined to normalize ties with Jerusalem, saying Palestinian statehood goals should be addressed first. But the Saudis have allowed Israeli airliners to overfly their territory to newly available Gulf destinations as well as to Asia.

The meeting would have taken place around the same time as the coronavirus cabinet meeting was expected to take place. The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement explaining that the meeting would be pushed off because ministers Yizhar Shay and Zeev Elkin needed more time to work on their digital surveillance program.

However, in an interview with N12 on Sunday, Shay claimed that he had no idea why the meeting was delayed.

 

N12 reported that sources familiar with the details say that this message was a kind of cover up so that there would be no suspicion of the cancellation of the cabinet meeting.

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“There are increasing signs of a diplomatic rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” said former Mossad chief Danny Yatom on Twitter. “If and when a peace agreement is signed between the countries, it will be a strategic geopolitical event that will greatly advance Israel’s interest in the region.”

Netanyahu’s office said it had no comment on the reports.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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