US senator says Israel-Saudi deal possible before year end

MELVINDALE, Michigan – US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Oct 23 and believed that an agreement to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia could be reached before the end of 2024.

Mr Graham, who is in Michigan campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, told Reuters that Mr Netanyahu supported work on a deal with Saudi Arabia, adding that the next US administration was unlikely to be able to secure enough votes in Congress after President Joe Biden leaves office on Jan 20.

“I think the time to do this is on Biden’s watch,” said Mr Graham, who had also met Mr Netanyahu earlier in October.

He said Vice-President Kamala Harris was “far more beholden to the left” and had not shown interest in working for such an agreement, but Mr Biden was keen to see a deal get done and would be able to mobilise the needed Democratic votes.

Normalising Israeli-Saudi relations would mark an expansion of the “Abraham Accords” sealed when Trump was in office. The accords led to the normalisation of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

Ms Morgan Finkelstein, national security spokeswoman for the Harris campaign, said: “Vice-President Harris has consistently supported efforts to ensure Israel is more deeply integrated in the Middle East region, including a potential historic normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia. She believes such integration is critical to counter the threats posed by Iran.”

Democrats would be reluctant to support Trump if he won the election and the initiative slipped into 2025, Mr Graham said.

The Biden administration had been working to broker a normalisation accord between the two countries that would include US security guarantees for Gulf state Saudi Arabia, among other bilateral deals between Washington and Riyadh, but those efforts stalled after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023.

A defence pact would require a two-thirds majority in the US Senate, or 67 votes.

Analysts have said that an Israel-Saudi normalisation deal would be difficult to achieve without a clear path to establishing an independent Palestinian state, which most Israelis oppose.

Mr Graham expressed confidence that a solution could be found to ensure the creation of a sovereign state in a Palestine that was demilitarised and could not threaten Israel.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” he said, adding that he expected Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to be supportive since absence of a deal would undermine his economic goals.

Mr Graham said there was an “opening a mile wide” for a ceasefire in Lebanon, given Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah leaders, but ensuring a lasting peace in the region also required a plan to rebuild Gaza after the war and the West Bank, something he said should be led by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

The Oct 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel killed around 1,200 people, with another 253 taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent war has devastated Gaza, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians, with another 10,000 uncounted dead thought to lie under the rubble, the Gaza health authorities say. REUTERS