Blinken says ‘progress’ made on Israel-Saudi normalisation
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken give a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry
Cairo – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday the path towards normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia, delayed by the war in Gaza, was seeing “very good progress”.
Blinken said at a press conference in Cairo that his visit to the Gulf kingdom on Wednesday had yielded “a very good discussion” with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
The talks had focused both on the war in Gaza and on relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, where Blinken had made three visits since the start of the war on October 7.
The US top diplomat said he could not “put a time frame” on normalisation, but that discussions were “getting close to a point where we’ll have agreements”.
According to a senior state department official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, further progress is contingent on the resolution of a handful of issues.
Blinken said it would be a “historic opportunity for the two nations and for the region as a whole”.
Washington has sought to rally Arab countries around long-term plans for post-war governance in the Gaza Strip, and further normalisation deals with Israel.
The United States, Israel’s main backer, has long sought to broker an eventual agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which would entail US security guarantees for the kingdom.
Riyadh, however, had conditioned any such agreement on the recognition of an independent Palestinian state — a prospect rejected by Israel.
An agreement had nevertheless seemed on the horizon last year, before the outbreak of the deadliest ever war in Gaza.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
The kingdom has been highly critical of Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Hamas-run Gaza, which has killed nearly 32,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Riyadh has said it would not establish ties with Israel until Israeli forces leave Gaza and an agreement is reached towards the creation of a Palestinian state.
The regional heavyweight has never recognised Israel and did not join the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords that saw its Gulf neighbours Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates as well as Morocco establish formal ties with Israel.