NEW YORK – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voices hope that President-elect Donald Trump will pick up his work to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, acknowledging a historic deal will not happen under Joe Biden’s administration.
Blinken until recently was still voicing hope at reaching an agreement, which he had dangled as an incentive for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show moderation in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“The work that we’ve done on putting in place the elements of that deal, including what we and Saudi Arabia would do together, what they would do with Israel, all of that is now there,” Blinken says in an interview with MSNBC.
He offers rare praise for Trump’s record in shepherding the 2020 Abraham Accords in which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco forged ties with Israel, its first normalization with the Arab world in decades.
“Now the opportunity is there — and I know this is something that the president [Trump] will be focused on -– to broaden that out with the Saudis,” Blinken says.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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