move locationAxiosOn the authority of US officials as saying that the administration of President Joe Biden told Israel, last week, that it must make concessions to the Palestinians in order to ensure the success of the normalization project with Saudi Arabia.
The site stated that the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, visited Washington last week for talks at the White House and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia.
Four current and former US officials told the site that White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken raised with Dermer the issue of Israel making concessions to the Palestinians as part of any Saudi deal.
Two US officials said Blinken told Dermer that the Israeli government was “misreading the situation” if it believed it would not have to make such concessions.
And US officials confirmed that “Blinken also said that Saudi Arabia will need to prove to the Arab and Islamic world that it has obtained important achievements from Israel with regard to the Palestinians” in exchange for its acceptance of the normalization agreement.
Sullivan also told the Israeli official that US President Joe Biden wants broad support from Democrats in Congress to conclude the deal with Saudi Arabia, a source familiar with the case told Axios.
To do that, Sullivan said, serious Israeli steps toward the Palestinians would be needed.
According to US officials and a source familiar with the matter, Dermer did not raise much in his talks with Blinken and Sullivan on the issue of Israeli concessions.
The informed source said that Dermer told Sullivan that the concession that Israel could make related to its willingness to accept Riyadh’s acquisition of a civilian nuclear program.
And three current and former US officials said that there is a possibility to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House to meet with Biden in the third week of September, which has not been confirmed by the White House so far.
A source familiar with the issue said that such a meeting, if held, would likely focus on stressing the need for Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians in order for any future normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia to take place.
Axios indicated that the US State Department referred a request for comment on this information to the White House.
On the other hand, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House told the website that the administration would not comment on private diplomatic talks, while Dermer’s office and the Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Saudi officials have long vowed to abide by the decades-old position of the Arab League, which is not to normalize relations with Israel before resolving the conflict with the Palestinians.
Saudi Arabia defends the Palestinian cause and refrains from establishing official relations with Israel, but Washington seeks to sponsor what could be a historic agreement in the Middle East that includes the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
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2023-08-26 15:12:28
