Israel and Saudi Arabia are working on a ‘framework’ agreement: US

Washington (AFP) – The White House announced on Friday that Israel and Saudi Arabia are nearing an agreement to normalize relations after decades of enmity.

President Joe Biden hopes to alter the Middle East — and score an election-year diplomatic success—by gaining Saudi Arabia’s recognition of the Jewish state, which guards Islam’s two holiest sites.

“All sides have hammered out, I think, a basic framework for what, you know, what we might be able to drive at,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby to reporters.

“However, as with any complex arrangement, as this will inevitably be, everyone will have to do something.” And everyone will have to make some concessions.”

Following similar agreements with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco, the US has pushed its Middle East allies Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, recently stated that the two countries were becoming closer, as did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Saudi Arabia has been demanding security assurances, including a treaty, from the US in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel. However, the Palestinians have cautioned that they must be considered in any deal, claiming that there can be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution.