US national security adviser to travel to Saudi Arabia for talks with crown prince
Jake Sullivan set to discuss Israel normalization in meeting with Muhammad bin Salman; though Blinken hailed ‘good progress,’ no major breakthrough expected, says official
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan plans to travel to Saudi Arabia this week for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid a US push for progress toward normalizing relations between Israel and the Gulf kingdom.
Talks on normalization were put on ice in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack by Palestinian Hamas terrorists on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas in Gaza, but conversations have resumed in recent months.
A US official said Sullivan planned talks with the crown prince to check in on the issue but did not expect a major breakthrough.
A second US official said Sullivan would consult broadly on a number of matters.
“He has not been to Saudi Arabia in some time and there’s lots to discuss,” the second official said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on March 21 that the United States and Saudi Arabia had made “good progress” in talks on normalizing ties between the kingdom and Israel, without providing a timeline for concluding a deal.
As part of a normalization deal, Saudi Arabia wants to clinch a mutual defense pact with Washington and get US support for its civil nuclear program.
A senior State Department official who traveled with Blinken in March said the talks in Saudi Arabia focused on the bilateral portion of a larger plan under which Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel in return for credible progress on the creation of a Palestinian state.
Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, has never recognized Israel and has long insisted it would not do so without a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s hardline government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood, which Saudis have said is an essential component to any normalization agreement.
