US President Joe Biden highly appreciates the historic decision by the authorities in Saudi Arabia to open its airspace to all airlines, including Israeli ones. This was stated in an official statement by Jake Sullivan’s national security adviser, quoted by the White House press office. This decision is the result of prolonged diplomacy between Washington and Riyadh, culminating in Biden’s visit to the Middle East, the statement added. The swift approval by Saudi Arabia was also interpreted as a step towards normalization with Israel, as well as opening the way for a “more integrated, stable and secure Middle East region”.
Sullivan said Biden would make a special statement on the topic after the “historic flight” from Tel Aviv to the Saudi port of Jeddah, where his visit to Saudi Arabia begins.
Until a few years ago, the skies of the kingdom, which does not recognize Israel, were completely closed to incoming flights. Under President Donald Trump, however, a government plane flew over the kingdom for the first time to India, and Trump himself joked that his visit was the first direct Israeli-Saudi flight.
Information appeared in the Israeli media that in return the Jewish state would accept a deal for the transfer of two Egyptian islands to Saudi Arabia.
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