Tel Aviv – Israel is working with United States and other Gulf monarchs on a ‘careful’ normalization process with Saudi Arabia, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid disclosed the matter on Army Radio program on Monday.
“We believe that it is possible to have a normalization process with Saudi Arabia. It’s in our interest”, Lapid said. “We have already said that this is the next step after the Abraham Accords, to talk about a long and careful process”.
“We are working with the US and Gulf states on this”, he added.
Saudi Arabia and Israel do not share any diplomatic ties, however, in March, Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, popularly known as MBS, told The Atlantic that the Kingdom sees Israel as a potential ally rather than an enemy, with many interests that can be pursued together.
MBS said, “For us, we hope that the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is solved. We don’t look at Israel as an enemy, we look to them as a potential ally, with many interests that we can pursue together… But we have to solve some issues before we get to that”.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan during World Economic Forum 2022 said, “We always envisioned that there will be full normalization with Israel, and I’ve said before that a full normalization between us and Israel, between the region and Israel, will bring immense benefits – we won’t be able to reap those benefits unless we address the issue of Palestine”.
For these reasons, Lapid termed the process as ‘lengthy’ which comprises of small steps.
“This won’t happen the way it did last time”, Lapid said in reference to the rapidly agreed upon Abraham Accords.
“It could be that three foreign ministers after me, someone will be standing on the podium and will celebrate this — which is completely fine; this is how one runs the state”, he added.
