Progress Towards Israel-Saudi Normalisation

Reports that Anthony Blinken has added Saudi Arabia to the itinerary for his trip to the Middle East later in October, also taking in Israel and the West Bank, indicate that significant efforts are now under way to advance a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The US Secretary of State has the task of emphasising the support of the United States for such a deal.

This is a major advance from the situation at the beginning of 2023 when, after a meeting with Blinken in January, Benjamin Netanyahu would only say:

“We intend to deepen the piece that we’ve already made in the Abraham Accords.
We discussed some of the initiatives that we are considering doing together.”

The change seems to have come about due to a realisation in the USA that they have a real national security interest in promoting normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Needless to say, the Iranians are not happy about such a development. This report by i24 News: