Is the normalization of relations between Riyadh and Tel Aviv imminent?

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, the western media at the same time as the meeting Davos Sahara in Riyadh and the presence of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in this meeting reported that Saudi Arabia is ready to normalize relations with the Zionist regime. This media creation, which coincided with the beginning of the new round of talks to stop the Gaza war in Cairo, raised the idea that if Benjamin Netanyahu abandons the idea of ​​attacking Rafah and concludes a prisoner exchange agreement, he can exchange official relations.

From the beginning of the formation of the new cabinet of the Zionist regime in November 2022, the normalization of relations with Riyadh by following the model of relations with the UAE and Bahrain as the most important policy agenda Foreigners of this regime were on the table. In order to convince Netanyahu to give up large-scale operations in Rafah, the US tried to create a “Rafah or Riyadh dilemma” in the regional and international media space.

The Biden government which He is worried about the increase in student protests, who are from the social body of the Democratic Party, and is trying to end the war in Gaza faster in the year leading up to the American presidential elections. Therefore, he wants to make a political achievement for Netanyahu from the pocket of Saudi Arabia so that he agrees to the proposed prisoner exchange agreement in Cairo and to stop the war.

But the reality is that with Examining the position of the Saudi authorities in the Davos Sahara meeting, there was no visible sign of a serious change in their position regarding the case of Riyadh’s relations with the Zionist regime. Saudi officials continued to emphasize their traditional policy based on insisting on the option of forming an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, which was presented in 2001 at the Beirut meeting under the title of “Arab initiative”, and showed that news of an agreement is imminent. It is not about relations with Tel Aviv.

It seems that the American media hype about the imminent agreement was more to gain Netanyahu’s opinion, which of course was not successful, and the hardline Israeli government is interested in stopping the war and There is no killing in Gaza.

In such a situation, considering that a clear horizon for the formation of a Palestinian state is not available within the framework of the two-state solution considered by Saudi Arabia, it is unlikely that a normalization agreement can be reached. He spoke about Riyadh and Tel Aviv. Unless the US succeeds in convincing Saudi Arabia that the proposed strategic and security agreement is valuable enough to change Riyadh’s traditional policy towards Palestine. In such a situation, it is no secret that the political credibility of Saudi Arabia will be damaged in the eyes of the public opinion of the Arab world and Islamic countries, especially considering that the Saudis have defined a higher position among the Arab public opinion for themselves compared to the UAE and Bahrain.

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