Diplomat in Riyadh says Saudis could use potential normalization as a ‘carrot’ with Biden to deflect from kingdom’s human rights record
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) claps during a welcoming ceremony for the passengers of a flight operated by budget airline flydubai
TOI staff report 27 November 2020:
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman was reportedly kept out of the loop about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s secretive trip to the kingdom this week for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Quoting a Saudi source and a foreign diplomat in Riyadh, Reuters reported Friday that normalization with Israel appeared off the table as long as the Saudi monarch is alive — an analysis also made Thursday by a senior Israeli source cited by Israeli TV.
King Salman, 84, is reported to oppose normalization without the establishment of a Palestinian state, while his son, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, is considered more open to warming ties.
The diplomat cited by Reuters also suggested that the prospect of normalization was greater under the incoming Biden administration, with the US president-elect having threatened to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over its human rights violations.
“Normalization… is a carrot to get [Biden’s] focus away from other issues, especially human rights,” the diplomat said.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman was reportedly kept out of the loop about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s secretive trip to the kingdom this week for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Quoting a Saudi source and a foreign diplomat in Riyadh, Reuters reported Friday that normalization with Israel appeared off the table as long as the Saudi monarch is alive — an analysis also made Thursday by a senior Israeli source cited by Israeli TV.
King Salman, 84, is reported to oppose normalization without the establishment of a Palestinian state, while his son, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, is considered more open to warming ties.
The diplomat cited by Reuters also suggested that the prospect of normalization was greater under the incoming Biden administration, with the US president-elect having threatened to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over its human rights violations.
“Normalization… is a carrot to get [Biden’s] focus away from other issues, especially human rights,” the diplomat said.
The comments by the Saudi source and diplomat echoed a report Thursday on Israeli television. An unnamed senior Israeli source told Channel 12 news that there would be no progress on normalization as long as King Salman is on the throne.
“Israel understands that there will not be a breakthrough with the Saudis in the near future” because King Salman “takes a diametrically opposite stance” on the matter of normalization with Israel to that of his son, the report said.
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