Israeli media: Phone convos ongoing between Blinken, Bin Farhan
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The grounds for Saudi normalization with "Israel" are forming.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud arrive at the State Department in Washington, on October 14, 2021. (AP)
Israeli media reported on a phone conversation between US Secretary of States Anthony Blinken and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, where the two discussed US President Joe Biden's coming visit to Saudi Arabia.
Read more: Biden advisers eye Saudi Arabia trip to increase oil production
Barak Ravid, the political affairs commentator for the Israeli Walla website, tweeted that Blinken spoke in a phone call with bin Farhan. Ravid said the conversation took place 3 days after Blinken spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
On his part, Lapid said on Monday that "Israel" has been talking to the US and Gulf Arab countries about how to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia, but that any progress will be sluggish.
“We are working on it with the Americans, with some of our friends in the Gulf, in all kinds of ways,” Lapid said in an interview with Israeli Army radio when asked about reports that "Israel" would discuss normalization during a planned visit by US President Joe Biden to "Israel" and the region next month.
Read next: Biden officials in KSA for talks on oil, normalization with “Israel"
However, establishing full diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia will be a "long, laborious process" that will take time, he stressed. Biden's visit to "Israel", set to focus on developing Saudi-Israeli relations among other things, is now scheduled for the end of June, according to Lapid.
Saudi Arabia continues to publicly assert that it supports the Palestinian demand for independence and will not normalize relations with "Israel" until this problem is resolved, despite several reports revealing direct lines of communications and cooperative projects between the two regimes.
Since 2020, when it normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco in a US-brokered accord, "Israel" has struggled to strengthen its diplomatic contacts in the Arab world.
