In precedent, Saudi envoy attends Washington summit with Israelis, gives ‘inspiring’ speech

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, is taking part in the Middle East – America Dialogue (MEAD) summit in Washington, DC.

Notably, she is appearing at the same event as many senior Israeli officials, as efforts for a US-brokered normalization agreement have been put on the backburner amid the US elections but could renew afterward.

Al Saud takes part in a panel alongside the Moroccan and Bahraini ambassadors to the US. The content of the panel and photos of it are currently barred from publication, though Israeli media outlets hail her speech as “inspiring.”

Hebrew media outlets cite an unnamed senior Israeli official as speculating that a normalization deal could be clinched in the lame-duck period between the November 5 election and the January 20 swearing-in of the new American president, while stressing that this would require a ceasefire in Gaza and some sort of vision to resolve the Palestinian issue.