The United States and Saudi Arabia are “days away” from finalizing the documents that would establish a historic bilateral agreement that has long been a top priority for President Joe Biden, as it would take a parallel path to normalize relations between the Kingdom and Israel, a source intimately familiar with the matter told Sunday to CBS News.
A US official confirmed on Saturday that much progress had been made during a meeting between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, a city in the kingdom’s far east where the state oil giant is based. the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco.
In a statement released Saturday night, the Saudi Foreign Ministry described the draft agreement as “almost final.”
The first part of the deal includes a series of agreements between the US and Saudi Arabia, including defense guarantees and civil nuclear cooperation. The Biden administration would strengthen its ties with Saudi Arabia at a time when adversary China is trying to expand its influence in the Middle East.
A second component would normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but that is dependent on a third complicated and ambitious component that would pave a path to a Palestinian state.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently described how this part of the vision requires both “peace in Gaza” and a “credible path to a Palestinian state.” Sullivan, who arrived in the region on Saturday, and other Biden officials also traveled to Israel on Sunday and are expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the proposed deal.
A source intimately familiar with the Kingdom’s position told CBS that Saudi Arabia has made it clear that nothing can move forward without a two-state solution that includes Palestinian self-rule in both the West Bank and Gaza. Pushing aside the Palestinian issue is now almost impossible because of widespread outrage in the Arab world over the immense humanitarian toll on Palestinians in Gaza since Israel invaded the 40-kilometer-long area in pursuit of Hamas terrorists who killed 1,200 on October 7. killed people.
Since that time, Biden has repeatedly cited his belief that Hamas launched that brazen attack to halt his previous efforts to broker a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal that would not have prioritized the Palestinians.
Given Netanyahu’s outspoken opposition to a Palestinian state, it is unclear what he will agree to, but Israel’s domestic political crisis is building pressure on him. Two of the three unity war cabinet ministers have publicly questioned Netanyahu’s Gaza strategy in the past week, and Minister Benny Gantz threatened to quit on June 8 when important decisions are not made. Gantz has already called for elections in September and is widely seen as a potential future prime minister. According to a spokesperson, Gantz also spoke with Sullivan in recent days about the Saudi deal.
Biden administration officials hope that politically embattled Netanyahu will see the significant security and diplomatic victory of normalization with Saudi Arabia as an opportunity and a reason to compromise on Palestinian issues despite the danger of alienation of right-wing members whose support is crucial to the government. survival of his fragile coalition government.
Some of these nationalist right-wing ministers seek Israeli settlement and control of the Palestinian-majority West Bank and Gaza, calling them in biblical terms Judea and Samaria.
There are also domestic complications in the US. The highly publicized source acknowledged to CBS News that the “pressure is on” to finalize the deal, as there are only a few weeks left on Congress’ calendar and a security deal would have to be struck. lawmakers for their approval. The assumption was that Democrats were skeptical of the Kingdom because of its human rights violations and that Prince Mohammad would be more inclined to greenlight the deal and its nuclear component if a Democratic president asked him to do so.
Republican Senator Lindsay Graham – a Trump ally – has also traveled to the region and pushed for this diplomatic deal that builds on the architecture of the Trump-era Abraham Accords, which helped normalize relations between Israel and many of its regional neighbors, but not Saudi Arabia. While Trump could also theoretically pursue an Israeli-Saudi deal if he wins the general election in November, it may be harder for him to convince Democrats to vote for it. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump frequently touted his legacy in the region.
Margaret Brennan
