Netanyahu Met MBS, Pompeo in Saudi Arabia: Israeli Media

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly traveled to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Israeli media reported.

Sunday's meeting, if verified, will mark the first known meeting between senior Israeli and Saudi officials, in the midst of the US drive to persuade Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel, Aljazeera reports.

Israel's Kan Public Radio and Army Radio on Monday said that Mossad Leader Yossi Cohen also attended the conference, which was reportedly held in Neom on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu's office and the US embassy in Israel did not have any immediate remarks. There was also no word from the government of Saudi Arabia.

According to Israeli daily Haaretz, aviation tracking data showed that a private jet had made a brief trip from Tel Aviv to Neom, where MBS and Pompeo had a scheduled meeting on Sunday.

Flight-tracking websites revealed that the aircraft had been grounded for about two hours before it returned to Israel about half an hour past midnight.

The jet, according to Haaretz, is the same private plane that Netanyahu has taken several times to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Normalisation

Pompeo has tried to get the Gulf superpower to join its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, in developing formal ties with Israel-a rapprochement largely based on mutual concerns about Iran.

So far, Riyadh has refused to normalize relations with Israel, saying that the aims of Palestinian statehood should be discussed first. But the Saudis have allowed Israeli airlines to overfly their territory to newly available Gulf destinations and Asia.

Over the weekend, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said his country has “supported normalisation with Israel for a long time, but one very important thing must happen first: a permanent and full peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians”.

During a meeting with the Saudi foreign minister last month, Pompeo had urged the Saudis to consider normalising relations with Israel.

“We hope Saudi Arabia will consider normalising its relationships as well, and we want to thank them for the assistance they’ve had in the success of the Abraham Accords so far,” Pompeo said.