WILL SAUDI ARABIA AGREE TO RECOGNISE ISRAEL
July 18, 2024US President Joe Biden says Saudi Arabia wants to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for security guarantees from the United States.
“I got a call from the Saudis — they want to fully recognize Israel,” Biden said in an interview.
Riyadh has not publicly gone this far, and its officials have reiterated that their country will not normalize relations with Israel unless Tel Aviv agrees to establish a pathway to a future Palestinian state — a condition Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly rejected.
Biden doesn’t mention the Palestinian condition, and instead asserts that what Saudi Arabia wants in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel is a guarantee that the US will provide them weapons “if they’re attacked by other Arab nations — one just around the corner.” He appears to be referring to Riyadh’s Mideast rival Iran, which is not an Arab country.
The US president says Washington would also establish a civilian nuclear facility in Saudi Arabia, which the US army would operate “so they can move away from fossil fuels.”
This appears to be the most detail any US official has publicly given regarding the terms of the defense guarantees sought by Saudi Arabia, particularly the nuclear component.
“That’s a big game changer in the whole region,” Biden says.
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English Script:
Joe Biden: I’ve gotten significant support from Arab countries in the region as well. Look, the idea here is that, for example, I got a call from the Saudis, they want to fully recognize Israel. In return, if the United States will give them a guarantee that they will provide weapons if they’re attacked by other Arab nations, like the one just around the corner. And we will allow them to…we would put a civilian nuclear facility there but we’d operate, our military we’d opearate it, so they can move away from fossil fuels. That’s a big game changer in the whole region. I’ve worked with El-Sisi of Egypt, I’ve worked with the King of Jordan as a friend. So I’ve been I’ve been able to work with the Arab countries very well.
