White House: US was ‘months away’ from securing Israel-Saudi deal before Hamas struck

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, left, and US President Joe Biden, right, shake hands next to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, September 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Pool)
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, left, and US President Joe Biden, right, shake hands next to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, September 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Pool)

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby tells reporters in a briefing that the US was “months away” from successfully brokering a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia before Hamas’s surprise attack against Israel on Saturday morning.

While the remark indicates that the attack may have derailed that effort, Kirby says the US still has “every intention to continue a process where [normalization] could occur.”

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