Report: Senior Israeli Official Visits Saudi Arabia Over Security Cooperation

A senior Israeli official reportedly visited Saudi Arabia recently for talks of growing cooperation, including in the field of security between the countries.

The visit, which Channel 12 said included meetings at the Riyadh Palace, took place against the backdrop of warming ties between Israel and the Saudi kingdom as well as President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to Israel.

Although Yerushalayim and Riyadh do not have diplomatic relations, the United States is pushing for cooperation between its Middle Eastern allies.

Last week, two U.S. officials traveled to Saudi Arabia to reportedly work on a deal that would allow Washington and Riyadh to strengthen their ties and move towards Saudi-Israeli normalization.

Proposed steps to reach normalization include Saudi Arabia allowing Israel to use its airspace for all flights and direct flights for Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, Axios reported.

The White House is also reportedly working to coordinate a meeting between Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and aiming to broker a deal between Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

While Riyadh acknowledged neighboring states – the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – for normalizing ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords, it refrained from following suit.

“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,” Prince Mohammed said in March.

Meanwhile, Globes reported that Saudi Arabia is allowing Israeli businesspeople to enter the country with their Israeli passports after receiving a special visa. For the most part it is representatives and managers of Israeli technology companies who are being invited to visit by the Saudis. This is a dramatic change and follows the cancellation in recent months of the blanket ban on Israeli passport holders, making it easy for special visas to be obtained.

Dozens of Israeli businesspeople have taken advantage of this option and visited Riyadh, the economic center of Saudi Arabia, and other locations like Neom.

All this is preparing the ground for a major diplomatic meeting between Israel and Saudi Arabia with economic and defense components, an international source familiar with the matter told Globes. Among other things, agreements will be signed in aviation, and cooperation in research and technology in medicine, agriculture and energy.

The source explained, “The Saudis prefer that, publicly, reporting should focus mainly on economic affairs, because on other subjects there are still many obstacles, but the economic openness testifies to the coming steps that are not far away.”

The source added that many Saudis were applying to come to Israel to promote business and see how technologies work, especially in agriculture and advanced technology areas.