Israeli prime minister visits Saudi Arabia, meets with crown prince and Pompeo

Israel and the Sunni Arab nations have several weeks left to get relations as far along as possible. The next Administration is going to mess things up by supporting Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly made a secret trip to Saudi Arabia Sunday, a visit that would mark a dramatic shift in the historically hostile relations between the Jewish State and the Arab power that is the home of Islam's holiest sites.


Neither the prime minister’s office nor Saudi officials immediately responded to requests for comment. The visit was first reported by Israel’s Channel 12 News.




If confirmed, the brief trip would represent the first visit by an Israeli official to Saudi Arabia and comes amid a flurry of diplomatic breakthroughs between Israel and its Arab neighbors. It also reportedly occurred as tensions with Iran, viewed as a common enemy of both countries, are on the rise.
Mohammed, known as MBS, is close to President Trump and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and adviser. With Trump’s defeat, anxiety has risen in both Saudi Arabia and Israel that President-elect Joe Biden will reverse Trump’s hardline policies against Iran and seek to revise Washington’s participation in the Iran nuclear deal negotiated during the Obama administration and still recognized by European and other allies.


The timing of Netanyahu’s reported trip suggested to some analysts that the two countries wanted to present a united position to Biden’s incoming foreign policy team in advance of his inauguration in two months.




“I think the main thing is that both sides want to get ready for January and to project and align an Israeli-Arab front that is ready for engagement with Iran,” said Shimrit Meir, a Middle East analyst for the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.