Top Israeli official insists Saudi normalization still possible before US elections
US, Israeli sources recently said window for deal before US elections has closed due to Congress schedule; PM, in Congress speech, said regional alliance is needed to counter Iran
WASHINGTON — A normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia is still possible before the US presidential election, a top Israeli official told reporters Friday, adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the matter with US President Joe Biden during their Thursday meeting at the White House.
“If the costs are acceptable to us. It could develop there even before the elections. Israel and Saudi Arabia share a common interest,” the Israeli official said, ostensibly referring to efforts to curb Iran’s influence in the region.
The official’s assessment ran counter to previous American and Israeli sources who suggested earlier this month that the deal was no longer achievable before the November 5 election.
Netanyahu met separately on Thursday with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House. The meetings came a day after Netanyahu, in a speech to Congress, laid out his vision for a regional anti-Iran axis comprising “America, Israel and our Arab friends.” The premier did not explicitly mention Saudi Arabia or the normalization efforts in the speech.
Senior congressional sources told The Times of Israel earlier this month that there was no chance for a deal before the election because there wasn’t enough time left for Congress to authorize the security package that Riyadh is seeking with Washington as part of the broader initiative being advanced by the Biden administration.
The sources didn’t completely rule out a deal between the election and the inauguration of the next US president, but they stressed that it was still very unlikely. An Israeli official agreed, saying Republican lawmakers were likely unwilling to give Biden a diplomatic achievement in an election year.
A White House official didn’t go as far as the congressional sources, arguing that the window to secure a deal “hasn’t closed completely.”
But they agreed that a deal isn’t possible without a ceasefire first being reached in Gaza — a point made publicly by top US and Saudi officials, who have recognized that Riyadh will not be able to sell a normalization deal domestically or in the region if the Israel-Hamas war is still ongoing.
Relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas said Thursday, after meeting with Biden and Netanyahu, that the US president had made them more optimistic for a deal than they had been since November, when a weeklong ceasefire mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar secured the release of 105 hostages.
US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — one of the few Republicans to declare up front that he would be prepared to back a deal brokered by a Democratic White House — surmised upon meeting Netanyahu in January that the Biden administration had until June to finalize the normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia.
In a July 15 interview, Biden said Saudi Arabia wants to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for security guarantees from the United States.
Riyadh had not publicly gone that far, and its officials have reiterated that their country will not normalize relations with Israel unless Jerusalem agrees to establish a pathway to a future Palestinian state — a condition Netanyahu has flatly rejected.
Netanyahu was set to also meet in Florida on Friday with Republican presidential nominee, former US president Donald Trump.
Trump, who orchestrated the 2020 Abraham Accords normalization agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, estimated at the time that Riyadh would follow in the two Arab countries’ footsteps.
During his presidency, Trump also showed fealty to Netanyahu’s anti-Iran stance by withdrawing from predecessor Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran, which the premier campaigned against.
Talks toward normalization picked up speed in 2023 but were cut short by the war in Gaza. Four days before Hamas’s October 7 — when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war — Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi led a delegation to Saudi Arabia. The visit came less than a week after Tourism Minister Haim Katz made the first-ever official visit to Saudi Arabia by an Israeli minister.
