The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has reportedly informed the Biden administration of its decision to halt all talks of normalizing ties with Israel.
The report appeared on Sunday, September 17, in the Saudi-owned Elaph newspaper, citing unnamed senior Israeli officials as confirming having received such message from Washington.
According to the report, Israeli official stated that Netanyahu’s far-right government is hesitant to make any concessions to Palestinians, thus preventing normalization.
In particular, the insistence of the far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich that Tel Aviv cannot make any concessions to the Palestinians.
The report further added that Israel was “confused” by the move, believing that the Saudis were prepared to move ahead with normalizing ties without linking it to the progress on the Palestinian issue.
On Friday, September 15, Secretary of United States Antony Blinken said, US is pursuing a “transformative” agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but the process is currently tumultuous over specific issues, including Palestine, Bloomberg reported.
“Even as we are working on this, it remains a difficult proposition,” Blinken told reporters when asked about a possible deal.
However, the Saudis have strengthened their engagement with Palestinians in recent weeks.
Saudi Arabia will co-host an event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, September 18, focused on revamping the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, three UN diplomats told The Times of Israel.
In August, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Jordan began serving as Riyadh’s first non-resident ambassador to the Palestinians as well as the first non-resident consul general in Jerusalem.
