The Israeli government channel, Kan, reported today, Sunday, that Saudi Arabia has agreed in principle to pass the plane, which will carry an Israeli delegation to the Emirates on Monday, through its airspace.
The Israeli El Al plane will carry the two delegations to Abu Dhabi for talks with the aim of finalizing an agreement establishing direct relations between the UAE and Israel.
The channel said, "The plane will pass over Saudi Arabia tomorrow on its way to the Emirates." "The proposed route for the plane, which will take off from (Ben Gurion) Airport, will pass through Jordan and continue through Saudi airspace," she added.
However, the channel indicated that "in the event that the Israeli plane's transit permit is canceled from Saudi airspace, it will turn by the sea."
The channel indicated that there is Israeli concern about revoking the passage of the El Al plane from Saudi airspace, during the last moments.
There was no immediate comment from the Saudi side about what the channel went to.
However, Saudi Arabia had not previously announced its consent to the passage of civil aviation through its airspace to Israel, and it had previously denied two years ago that it agreed to cross the Indian airlines from its airspace to Tel Aviv.
Saudi Arabia avoided directly commenting on the UAE's reaching a normalization agreement with Israel, saying only that it was committed to the Arab Peace Initiative.
The Arab Peace Initiative, which all Arab countries signed in the Lebanese capital Beirut on March 28, 2002, includes provisions that prevent the normalization of relations with Israel, as long as the latter does not commit itself to restoring Palestinian rights on the basis of international resolutions.