Israel’s PM-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
By Ed Malik, A | December 7, 2022
ed@ddnewsonline.com with Agency reports @worldisraelnews.com
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia intends to normalize relations with the Jewish State of Israel but it will take time, depending on some final touchpoints to be agreed upon, reported i24News on Tuesday December 6, 2022.
“The direction of Saudi-Israeli relations is normalization, but it will take more time and we must not put the cart before the horse,” Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir said in a recent meeting with American Jews, as revealed in an official document obtained by the Israel-based, English-language site.
Al-Jubeir also met in recent weeks with U.S. Jewish community leaders in Washington, where he delivered messages regarding future relations with Israel, i24News reported.
According to the document obtained by i24NEWS, he said that progress on Israeli-Saudi normalization has been made but that more time is required.
“Israel and other Gulf states have been gradually normalizing for years. The process must be allowed to mature,” Al-Jubeir said.
“It is only a question of timing,” an American Jewish leader told an Israeli official after the meeting, according to the report.
However, i24News reported that, in a separate meeting held last month with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the report added, the Saudis presented a list of demands in exchange for progress, all directed at Washington, and the Palestinians were not mentioned.
Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, during the campaign, had vowed to make peace with Saudi Arabia if re-elected.
“I think the big prize is peace with Saudi Arabia, which I intend to achieve if I go back into office,” Netanyahu told JNS in an interview in October, ahead of the national election.