Brian McDonald
The United States and Saudi Arabia are “days” away from completing the documents It would forge a historic bilateral agreement that has long been one of President Joe Biden’s top priorities as it would begin a parallel path toward normalizing relations between the Kingdom and Israel, a source very familiar with the matter told CBS News on Sunday.
A US official confirmed that much progress had been made on Saturday in a meeting between National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, a city in the far east of the kingdom that is home to its oil giant. state-owned. the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. known as Saudi Aramco.
In a statement released overnight on Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry described the draft agreement as “almost final.”
The first component of the agreement includes a series of agreements between the US and Saudi Arabia, including defense guarantees and civil nuclear cooperation. The Biden administration would solidify its ties with Saudi Arabia at a time when adversary China is trying to expand its influence in the Middle East.
A second component would normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but this depends on a complicated and aspirational third component that would open a path to a Palestinian state.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently described this part of the vision as requiring both “calm in Gaza” and a “credible path to a Palestinian state”. Sullivan, who arrived in the region on Saturday, and other Biden officials also traveled to Israel on Sunday and are expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the proposed deal.
A source very familiar with the Kingdom’s position told CBS that Saudi Arabia has made it clear that nothing can move forward without a two-state solution that includes Palestinian self-rule in both the West Bank and Gaza. Setting aside the Palestinian issue is now almost impossible given the widespread outcry in the Arab world over the immense humanitarian cost suffered by Palestinians in Gaza since Israel invaded the 40-kilometer territory in pursuit of Hamas terrorists who killed 1,200 people on October 7 .
Since then, Biden has frequently cited his belief that Hamas launched that brutal attack to thwart his previous attempts to forge a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel that would not have prioritized Palestinians.
Given Netanyahu’s stated opposition to a Palestinian state, it is unclear what he will agree to, but the internal political crisis in Israel is increasing pressure on him. Two of the unit’s three war cabinet ministers publicly questioned Netanyahu’s Gaza strategy last week, and Minister Benny Gantz threatened to quit by June 8 if important decisions were not made. Gantz has already called elections for September and is widely seen as a potential future prime minister. In recent days, Gantz also spoke with Sullivan about the Saudi deal, according to a spokesperson.
Biden administration officials hope that Netanyahu, politically embattled, will see the significant diplomatic and security victory of normalization with Saudi Arabia as an opportunity and a reason to reach a compromise on Palestinian issues, despite the danger of alienating members of the right. whose support is essential for the survival of his fragile coalition government.
Some of these right-wing nationalist ministers seek Israeli colonization and control of the majority-Palestinian West Bank and Gaza and refer to them in biblical terms as Judea and Samaria.
There are also internal complications in the USA. The very familiar source acknowledged to CBS News that “pressure is mounting” to complete the deal, given that there are only a few weeks left on the Congressional calendar and a security agreement would have to be approved. legislators for their approval. The presumption was that Democrats were skeptical of the Kingdom for its human rights violations and Prince Mohammad would be more likely to give the green light to the deal and its nuclear component if a Democratic president asked him to do so.
Republican Senator Lindsay Graham – a Trump ally – has also been traveling to the region and pushing for this diplomatic agreement that builds on the architecture of the Trump-era Abraham Accords, which helped normalize relations between Israel and many of its regional neighbors. , but not Saudi Arabia. While Trump could theoretically also seek a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia if he wins the November general election, it may be more difficult for him to persuade Democrats to vote for it. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump frequently praised his legacy in the region.
Margaret Brennan
