DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Joe Biden’s national security adviser met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman early Sunday, confirming the kingdom’s extensive security agreement between the two countries. We discussed what we called the “semi-final version” of . .
The announcement by the state-run Saudi Press Agency came amid a reversal of the strategic agreement after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and returning 250 hostages to the Gaza Strip. .
Since then, Israel’s punitive air campaign and ground attacks have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians and jeopardized a security agreement that included Saudi Arabia’s first diplomatic recognition of Israel since its founding in 1948. became.
Saudi state media has not published images of Jake Sullivan and Prince Mohammed meeting in the far eastern city of Dhahran, home to the state oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Company, known as Saudi Aramco.
“The semi-final draft of the strategic agreement between Saudi Arabia and the United States, which is nearing completion, and the ongoing efforts between the two countries on the Palestinian issue to find a reliable path forward were discussed,” a statement released after the meeting said. the statement said.
These include “a two-state solution that meets the aspirations and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and “the need to stop the situation in Gaza and the war there, and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid,” the statement added.
Saudi Arabia has long called for the creation of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 border with Israel, with East Jerusalem as its capital. But that is likely to be unacceptable to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government opposes a two-state solution and supports hard-liners who support Israeli settlements on land the Palestinians want for statehood. dependent.
The White House confirmed Sullivan’s visit and said he would then travel to Israel to meet with Netanyahu on Sunday, but there was no immediate statement from the United States about the talks beyond saying they would “include the war in Gaza and ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the region.”
Saudi Arabia, like other Gulf Arab states, has long relied on the United States as a security guarantee across the Middle East, as tensions over Iran’s nuclear program have spilled over into a series of attacks in recent years. The proposals currently being discussed are likely to deepen that further, reportedly including access to advanced weapons and possibly a trade deal.
Saudi Arabia is also pushing for nuclear cooperation with a deal that includes allowing the United States to enrich uranium in Saudi Arabia, but nonproliferation experts say the spinning centrifuges open the door to a possible weapons program. are concerned. Prince Mohammed has said that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia will pursue them. Iran has stepped up its threats in recent weeks that it could do so.
Meanwhile, Iran’s mission to the UN in New York confirmed that Iran held indirect talks with US officials in Oman last week. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said the mission described the talks as an “ongoing process.”
“This is not the first time these types of negotiations have taken place and it will not be the last,” the envoy said, according to IRNA.
Oman, a sultanate on the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has been a site of talks between the United States and Iran in the past, including under the Biden administration, despite tensions between the two countries.
