Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Saudi Arabia and reportedly met its crown prince, an Israeli official said on Monday.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in Neom.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, denied reports of the meeting between the crown prince and Netanyahu: “I met Pompeo at the airport and went with him to the meeting. I then took him back to the airport. Saudi and American officials were the only ones present throughout”, he said.
Since August, Saudi Arabia has allowed Israeli airliners to overfly its territory to newly available Gulf destinations and Asia. The normalisation of ties has been largely on shared concerns about Iran.
On Saturday, Prince Faisal said that the kingdom had favoured normalisation “for a long time”, but on condition Israel and the Palestinians reach “a permanent and full peace deal”.
Palestinian militant groups, however, condemned the news of a softer Saudi line on their enemy, Israel. Palestinian Islamic Jihad called it “a betrayal of Jerusalem, blessed Mecca and Medina”.
