Axios US website quoted Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog as saying that Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has shown openness to a diplomatic deal with Israel but his father King Salman, who is a strong supporter of Palestinians, is believed to be blocking the move.
Herzog also said Israel hopes Saudi Arabia will join other Gulf countries in growing the Abraham Accords and normalizing relations with Israel but said that will be difficult if the U.S. and Saudi Arabia haven't restored their relationship first.
Other English sources have earlier confirmed that MBS is ready to normalize ties with Israel, along with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Washington Institute has commented on Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's recent visit to Bahrain, saying that the trip reflects the diplomatic competition between Manama and Abu Dhabi, and also suggests that a breakthrough with the Saudis could be close.
Given the island’s literal and political connections with Saudi Arabia, Bennett’s move will increase speculation that open, perhaps even formal, Israeli relations with Riyadh are imminent, the paper said.
For its turn, the New York Times stressed that Bennett's visit to Manama, the Bahraini capital, hints at tacit support for greater Israeli-Arab ties from Saudi Arabia.
The paper went on saying that Saudi officials are ready to change the Kingdom's official position towards Israel. “Saudi officials have said that Saudi Arabia will not normalize ties with Israel until an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is reached.”
Bahrain is a tiny but strategically important country, and is widely considered a proxy for Saudi Arabia, the paper concluded.
Last month, MBS said that he sees Israel as a “potential ally” with shared interests, not an enemy, marking a subtle shift in the official stance on relations with Israel.
The official Saudi line has long held that Israel and the kingdom could establish relations once it resolves its conflict with the Palestinians, but perhaps not a friendship.
Despite the absence of official ties, Saudi Arabia agreed in 2020 to allow Israel-UAE flights to cross its territory. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's El Al Israel Airlines plane flew through Saudi airspace when he visited Abu Dhabi in December.
As a new report from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) said that MBS is the kingdom’s day-to-day decision maker and natural interlocutor for every other foreign head of state including the normalization decision.
