Benjamin Netanyahu (Ohad Zwigenberg / Pool Photo via AP)

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November 24, 2020Secret and unprecedented visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Saudi Arabia as reported by the Agi.

According to Israeli media reports, Netanyahu met with the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the presence of the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.

The Saudi ruling house immediately denied the flash visit, the Israeli leader neither confirmed nor denied, but his education minister, Yoav Gallant, spoke of an "extraordinary result" in an interview with military radio.

Meanwhile, from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has already protested over an interview that is seen as an "insult" and "an outrage against Palestinian rights".



The meeting of a few hours, also in the presence of the director of Mossad Yossi Cohen, would have taken place Sunday evening in Neom, the new Saudi smart-city overlooking the Red Sea, near the border with Jordan and with Israel itself.

Netanyahu allegedly used a private jet made available by the businessman Udi Angel, already used in the past for other diplomatic missions.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan denied Netanyahu's visit, noting that the meeting was only between MbS and Pompeo, as expected.   



Following the signing of the Abrahamic Agreements between Israel and the Emirates and Bahrain in mid-September, the Trump administration has intensified pressure on Saudi Arabia to follow suit and normalize relations with the Jewish state.

For its part, Riyadh has repeatedly recalled that it was she who launched the initiative in 2002, proposing to the Jewish state recognition by the Arab world in exchange for the two-state solution.   



Just yesterday, Prince Faisal reiterated that the normalization of relations with Israel can only take place after "a permanent and comprehensive peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis, including the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders".

So far, the Wahhabi Kingdom has only allowed Israel to use its airspace.

In the country, guardian of the sacred places of Islam, the generational division between the elderly King Salman, faithful to the traditional line with respect to the Palestinian cause, and the 35-year-old crown prince MbS, who instead supports the opening to the Jewish state, is plastic.     



Pompeo limited himself to speaking of a "constructive visit" to Neom, recalling that "the US and Saudi Arabia have come a long way since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and King Abdul Aziz Al Saud laid the foundations of ties 75 years ago". 



Netanyahu's 'secret' mission also highlighted the internal rift in the Israeli government with centrist leader and defense minister, Benny Gantz, as well as his ally, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, kept in the dark about the visit. in preparation for over a month.

To underline this was Topaz Luk, Netanyahu's consultant for social media: as the news began to circulate, he pointed out that "Gantz is in politics while the prime minister makes peace".

A reference, not too veiled, to the decision of the alternate premier to start a government commission of inquiry into the case of corruption linked to the purchase of submarines involving Netanyahu.     



Joe Biden's victory in the United States may have put the accelerator on a trend that has been going on for some time: the leaders of Israel and Saudi Arabia, formally enemies, have for years been engaged in a behind-the-scenes job to stem and thwart corner the common arch-rival, Iran.

The arrival of the dem candidate in the White House carries with it the risk of seeing Tehran return to the international scene, after the years in which the US administration led by Donald Trump had beaten hard against the Islamic Republic, against which it has widely deployed the 'weapon of sanctions after Washington's unilateral exit from the international nuclear agreement (JCPOA).     



As the Jerusalem Post pointed out, there is virtually no freedom of the press in Saudi Arabia, and military censorship in Israel is very effective in keeping the news out when it comes to national security.

Hence the conviction that the protagonists of the meeting wanted to make it known that they had met.

The recipient of the message was Biden, who said he was willing to try to revive the international nuclear agreement with Tehran, "by strengthening and extending it, more effectively rejecting Iran's other destabilizing activities".

A vagueness that has put on the alarm the two main enemies in the region of the Islamic Republic.     



On Sunday afternoon, shortly before the trip to Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu strongly reiterated his opposition to the JCPOA, urging "not to return to the previous nuclear agreement".

"We must maintain a no-compromise policy to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons," he added.     



A meeting was held yesterday on the Iran dossier in Berlin with the foreign ministers of Germany, France and the United Kingdom, during which the head of diplomacy of Paris, Jean-Yves Le Drian, reiterated the determination to preserve the Jcpoa in the conviction of its crucial role in preventing Tehran from possessing nuclear weapons.