Blinken warned PM that Rafah op would likely shut closing window for Saudi deal – officials

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders he met with earlier this week in Tel Aviv that a hostage deal must be reached soon if Jerusalem still wants to ink a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, two officials familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.

Blinken warned that the window for a deal is closing and that a major Israeli offensive in Rafah would likely shut it completely, the officials say.

The approaching US presidential election and increasingly unfavorable politics on Capitol Hill make it difficult for the White House to wait much longer before presenting a deal to Congress, a US official speculates.

The Guardian reported earlier this week that the US and Saudi Arabia could move forward with a bilateral agreement in which Washington would provide Riyadh with security guarantees without a side deal that would see the Gulf kingdom normalize relations with Israel. The US official dismisses this possibility, saying the White House isn’t interested in such a deal and that it would not be able to get through Congress regardless.