‘Basic framework’ in place for Israel-Saudi normalization, US says
National Security Council says two sides moving toward historic deal, but ‘complex’ arrangement will require ‘compromise’ by all sides
By AFP and TOI STAFF Today, 4:24 am
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, September 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Israel and Saudi Arabia are moving toward the outline of a historic US-brokered deal to normalize relations, the White House said on Friday.
US President Joe Biden is hoping to transform the Middle East — and score an election-year diplomatic victory — by securing recognition of the Jewish state by Saudi Arabia, the guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.
“All sides have hammered out, I think, a basic framework for what, you know, what we might be able to drive at,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“But, as in any complex arrangement, as this will inevitably be, everybody is going to have to do something. And everybody is going to have to compromise on some things,” Kirby said.
The United States has urged its Middle East allies Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize diplomatic relations, after Israel normalized ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in 2020. Israel previously forged ties with Egypt and Jordan.
In an address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “at the cusp” of a transformative peace agreement with Saudi Arabia. “Such a peace will go a long way to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict,” said Netanyahu. “It will encourage other Arab states to normalize their relations with Israel. It will enhance the prospects of peace with the Palestinians. It will encourage a broader reconciliation between Judaism and Islam, between Jerusalem and Mecca, between the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael.”
This has been an ongoing development since the efforts of former President Donald Trump to bring about Peace in the Middle East. This is not surprising to Bible Students as we fully expect to see this development based on Bible Prophecy that has foretold the alignment of Nations in the “latter days”. The Bible describes a King of the North and a King of the South Geo-political Alignment of Nations in the last days prior to the last battle of mankind and the intervention of Christ to established God’s Kingdom on Earth Forever. We read of this in Daniel Chapter 11:
“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”
You can read more about this in this article: Alignment of Nations in the Latter Days
