Israel's Netanyahu says more officials to visit Saudi Arabia soon

JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that more officials will visit Saudi Arabia soon.

On Tuesday, Tourism Minister Haim Katz landed in Saudi Arabia to attend an event organized by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), marking the first-ever public visit by an Israeli official to the kingdom.

"Yesterday, an Israeli minister – our colleague Haim Katz – landed in Saudi Arabia, and there will be additional visits soon," Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting as cited by a statement issued by his office.

The Israeli premier, however, did not provide any further details about the planned visits.

“We have been flying over Saudi Arabia for several years now, and we are talking about linking infrastructure,” Netanyahu said.

“All of this sounds imaginary; it is not happening by itself. It Is happening because we needed to spend years fighting against the concept and convincing many of us, first of all, and then many of our friends, especially in the US, to bypass the Palestinian veto.”

There was no comment from the Saudi authorities on Netanyahu's statements.

Recent months have seen US efforts to strike a deal to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia and Israel don’t have diplomatic relations and Riyadh insists that any deal to normalize ties with Tel Aviv must include a component advancing efforts to establish a Palestinian state, concessions that Israel has so far flatly rebuffed.

Six Arab countries have diplomatic ties with Israel, starting with Egypt in 1979, Jordan in 1994, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain in September 2020, and then Sudan and Morocco later that year.
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*Writing by Ahmed Asmar