Saudi Arabia wants to normalize ties with Israel
A recent report claimed that Saudi Arabia wants to normalize ties with Israel, though it will take time and hinges on the US meeting demands. Published: DECEMBER 6, 2022 17:4 By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Saudi Arabia is looking to normalize ties with Israel, although it will be a while before this ever properly manifests, Israeli news outlet i24NEWS reported Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) and Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Khalid Bin Salman await ahead of their meeting with the US Secretary of State at Irqah Palace in Riyadh on February 20, 2020. (credit: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The article cited Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abdel al-Jubeir, who recently spoke to senior American Jewish leaders. There, he guaranteed that Israeli-Saudi normalization will happen eventually, but stressed that it will take time.
In addition, in a meeting with US officials visiting Riyadh courtesy of the Washington Institute, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman listed three main demands that must be met for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel, according to i24NEWS.
According to the report, these demands did not include anything about the Palestinian conflict or requests for Israel. Rather, they hinged entirely on the US, specifically affirming a US-Saudi alliance, proper weapons supplies to the kingdom as if it were a NATO country and allowing Riyadh to have a restricted civil nuclear program.
Saudi-US ties flounder amid Biden administration, OPEC oil cuts
These requests by Saudi Arabia for the US come amid strained ties between Washington and Riyadh.
While the Biden administration had always been less warm towards the Saudis compared to their predecessors, relations suffered after OPEC decided to cut oil production by two million barrels per day in early October.
With energy prices already high due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this sparked outrage in the US and several politicians, including the Biden administration, condemned OPEC.
Saudi Arabia’s request for weapons supplies as if it were a NATO country also comes several months after the US declared Saudi Arabia’s neighbor and occasional rival, Qatar, a major non-NATO ally.
Saudi track for normalization with Israel
Saudi Arabia would be the latest Arab nation to normalize ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords, following the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco signing on in September 2020.
Since then, there has been speculation over whether Saudi Arabia would follow suit. Since then, there has been progress, and Israeli officials have reportedly visited Saudi Arabia for secret talks – with then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu even reportedly secretly meeting with Mohammed bin Salman. However, Saudi officials have long stressed the need for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict before considering it.
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