Israel hopes Biden trip will improve Saudi ties

Israel’s foreign minister has said that his country was looking to US President Joe Biden’s Middle East trip next month to help improve relations with Saudi Arabia, a country with which it does not have official ties.

“The fact that the president’s going to fly directly from here to Saudi Arabia is probably signifying that there is a linkage between the visit and the ability to improve relations,” Yair Lapid said on Wednesday at a news conference in Jerusalem.

“There is a list of target countries: Saudi is first among them,” along with other nations such as Indonesia, he told reporters. Asked whether there would be an Israeli official on the plane to the kingdom, Lapid said he did not know. But he joked that, “Air Force One is a big plane, maybe we’ll hide someone in a bathroom.”

On Tuesday, the White House confirmed Biden’s first trip to the Middle

East next month during which he will visit Israel and the West Bank, followed by a trip to Saudi Arabia – a country he had previously called a “pariah” state.

The US president is also expected to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in an aboutturn for Biden, who was critical of the Saudi crown prince who has been linked to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, but denies any involvement.

Israeli leaders have long said they want to improve relations with Arab countries, which have called for Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territories occupied after 1967 in exchange for the normalisation of ties.

Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have already established diplomatic ties with Israel as part of the so-called Abraham Accords pushed by former US President Donald Trump.

Israeli leaders have long said they want to improve relations with Arab countries, which have called for Israel’s co