Report: Mossad chief visited White House to discuss Saudi normalization
David Barnea visit seen as part of Biden administration’s ‘full-bore effort’ to reach Jerusalem-Riyadh deal, which will reportedly require Israeli concessions to Palestinians
Mossad chief David Barnea visited the White House earlier this month for “secret” talks about a potential normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, according to a report Monday.
Axios cited two US sources who said Barnea met in the White House with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan as well as Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, and Amos Hochstein, US President Joe Biden’s senior adviser on energy and infrastructure.
Sullivan and McGurk both traveled to Saudi Arabia in the period following their purported meetings with Barnea.
Barnea also reportedly met during his trip with CIA director Bill Burns. The CIA had no comment on the report.
“We continue to support for normalization with Israel, including with Saudi Arabia, and obviously continue to talk to our regional partners about how more progress can be made,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson said when asked to comment on the reported Barnea-Sullivan meeting.
According to numerous reports on a potential normalization deal in recent weeks, Riyadh is seeking a significant defense and security pact with the United States, Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, and a civilian nuclear program, a demand long opposed by Washington and Jerusalem.
But on Monday, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Israel’s approval would not be required. “Dozens of countries operate projects with civilian nuclear cores, and with nuclear endeavors for energy, this is not something that endangers them nor their neighbors,” he told public broadcaster Kan, adding that the issue would be between Washington and Riyadh.
“Israel will not give in to anything that will erode its security,” said Hanegbi.
The Netanyahu confidant said that the road to reaching a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia was long but still possible. “We were positively surprised a few months ago when the White House… said it was exerting efforts to reach a deal with the Saudis,” Hanegbi told Kan
Talks “are currently not at that area of dialogue” where a full deal was being discussed, he added. “I can identify with what the US president said in an interview a few days ago, where he said that the road is still long but that he thinks that there will be a possibility of progress on the issue.”
On Friday, Biden hinted at potential progress in the long-sought deal after months of US officials playing down the possibility, saying that “there’s a rapprochement maybe underway.”
The New York Times reported Saturday that Biden has not yet made up his mind on the desirability of an Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization deal, which would likely require a massive security pact between the US and Saudi Arabia, but had nonetheless dispatched Sullivan and McGurk to discuss terms of a potential deal.
According to that report, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expressed an increased willingness to reach a deal on normalization with Israel during a previous visit by Sullivan in May, prompting Biden to launch a “full-bore effort.”
Washington has sought to advance an Israel-Saudi normalization deal because of its perceived benefits to US national security. Such a deal would see Riyadh offer an unprecedentedly large aid package to Palestinian institutions in the West Bank, significantly roll back its growing relationship with China, and help bring an end to the civil war in Yemen.
Riyadh for its part would seek a NATO-like mutual security treaty that would obligate the US to come to its defense if it’s attacked; a civilian nuclear program monitored and backed by the US; and the ability to purchase more advanced weaponry from Washington such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antiballistic missile defense system, which could be used to combat Iran’s increasing missile arsenal, according to the New York Time’s Thomas Friedman, confirming previous reporting by The Times of Israel.
Riyadh would further demand from Israel significant concessions toward the Palestinians, a move that seems highly unlikely under the current far-right government.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Monday that Israel was “the closest we have ever been to a peace agreement” with the Saudis.
Speaking to Channel 12 news, Cohen asserted that the Palestinian issue “is not a barrier” to making such a deal, though he declined to respond as to whether Israel would enact a settlement freeze if one were demanded by Riyadh.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long sought an elusive normalization deal with the Saudis, repeatedly describing it as one of the top priorities of his new government and one that could lead to an end to both the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On Sunday, Netanyahu announced plans to build a trans-Israel railway that he said could eventually connect Israel to Saudi Arabia, although the project’s financial feasibility is unclear.
Biden’s efforts to broker a deal comes during a strained period in Israeli-US relations to his administration’s criticism of the judicial overhaul. Last week, Barnea reportedly told Mossad officials that if the overhaul leads to a constitutional crisis, he will side with the courts.
Biden pledged during the 2020 campaign to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over its human rights record and the 2018 murder in Turkey of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, remarks that angered Riyadh.
But US relations with the desert kingdom warmed again in 2022, when Biden visited both Israel and Saudi Arabia on a trip to reportedly secure a number of understandings from Riyadh, including higher oil production to offset gas prices, and to boost the alliance amid changing geopolitical landscapes in the Middle East and Asia.
The Times of Israel Community.