Saudi delegation to visit PA chairman in Ramallah amid normalization talks

A Saudi delegation is due to visit Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah this week, a PA official said on Sunday, according to Reuters.

The delegation will be led by the non-resident Saudi envoy to PA, who was appointed last month, the official said.

The delegation’s visit comes amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The deal is widely expected to include Israeli concessions towards the PA. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said that the Palestinian Arab issue will be part of a normalization agreement.

Speaking to the Pod Save the World podcast, Blinken said that “it’s also clear from what we hear from the Saudis that if this process is to move forward, the Palestinian piece is going to be very important, too.”

As part of the process, The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia is offering to resume financial support to the Palestinian Authority which it had frozen in 2021.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during his speech to the UN General Assembly on Friday that “I believe that we are at the cusp of a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Such a peace will go a long way to ending the Arab Israeli conflict.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman commented on the negotiations with Israel in an interview with Fox News which aired on Wednesday.

“Every day we get closer, it seems it’s for the first time real one serious. We get to see how it goes,” he said, adding his country could work with Israel, no matter who is in charge and calling a potential deal “the biggest historical deal since the end of the Cold War.”

(Israel National News’ North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Yom Kippur in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)