The Saud regime has been completely silent about the US-sponsored normalization agreement between Israel and the UAE on, amid widespread speculation that the Kingdom will do the same soon.
Saudi Arabia has not issued any official position on the agreement, which was met with strong Palestinian rejection, in what appears to be an undeclared sign of approval, especially in light of the recent rapprochement between the Saudi regime and Israeli.
Media professionals close to the Saudi regime welcomed the agreement, including the Saudi writer Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, who wrote on Twitter that the Abu Dhabi-Israel agreement “is a great step that serves the Palestinian people firstly, and the UAE and Arabs secondly.”
Meanwhile, Jared Kushner, senior advisor to US President Donald Trump, stated that another Arab country will announce during the next few days another peace agreement with Israel, indicating that there are matters currently being arranged.
In the context, Mike Evans, Trump’s advisor and founder of the Friends of Zion Museum in occupied Jerusalem, declared that “I have no doubt that Mohammed bin Salman will soon take the same step as Bin Zayed. It is a matter of time. When I met him, he spoke in support of Israel more than the Jews themselves.”
US President Donald Trump had indicated to reporters that more diplomatic breakthroughs are expected between Israel and the Arab countries in the region, but he did not provide other details.
Attention will turn to Saudi Arabia, which has a great regional weight, knowing that its official position is that settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a precondition for the normalization of relations.
But there seem to be indications of a possible rapprochement regardless, in a shift led by bin Salman, who recently opened the kingdom’s airspace for the first time to a passenger plane bound for Israel.
Earlier this year, the Kingdom announced that a film about the Holocaust would be screened at a film festival before it was canceled due to the Coronavirus.
For the first time, King Salman bin Abdulaziz hosted in Riyadh a rabbi residing in Jerusalem. Israeli media published a picture of Rabbi David Rosen with King Salman, describing it as a “revolutionary moment.”
“The Saudis are aware of the important role that Israel plays in the region,” said Mark Schneier, the American rabbi, who has ties to the kingdom and the Gulf.
“Just two years ago, (Prince) Khalid bin Salman (Deputy Minister of Defense) told me that the Kingdom knows that Israel is an integral part of achieving its economic plan for 2030,” which was announced by the Crown Prince in 2016.
The new agreement between the UAE and Israel raises questions about the fate of the Arab peace initiative, which came to light in 2002 under Riyadh sponsorship and provides for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in exchange for the normalization of relations between the Arab countries and Israel.