TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel has been talking to the US and Gulf Arab countries about how it could normalize diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia but realizes any progress is likely to be slow, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Monday.
“We are working on it with the Americans, with some of our friends in the Gulf, in all kinds of ways,” Lapid said in an interview with army radio, when asked about reports Israel would discuss normalization during a planned visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to Israel and the region next month.
But forging full diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia would be a “long, slow process” that will take time to be achieved, he added. Biden’s upcoming visit to Israel is currently planned for the end of June, Lapid said, adding that the details were still being finalized.
Saudi Arabia continues to state publicly that it is committed to the Palestinian cause for independence, and that it will not normalize its relations with Israel until this issue is resolved.
Israel has struggled to expand its diplomatic relations in the Arab world since 2020, when it normalized ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco under a U.S.-brokered agreement. A much-publicized process to normalize ties with Sudan was frozen following an attempted coup, while other countries in the region, including Iraq, have so far ruled out advancing diplomatic relations with Israel.
Normalization with Saudi Arabia would open ties with the Middle East’s largest economy, the birthplace of Islam and the most powerful country in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
A recent Axios report said Israel is considering giving its approval for the transfer of two strategically important islands in the Red Sea from Egypt to Saudi Arabia. Under the terms of Israel’s 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, Israel must give its approval on any change in the islands’ status.
