Saudi Arabia will open its airspace to all flights to and from Israel, a victory in foreign policy for US President Joe Biden hours before he arrived in the kingdom.
Biden, who hopes his trip will restore U.S. relations with the Gulf state amid turmoil in the global oil market, praised the Saudi announcement as a “historic decision” and credited his administration that helped negotiate the deal.
The announcement provides Biden with success on his first trip to the region as president after his predecessor Donald Trump helped negotiate peace agreements between Israel and four Arab countries.
Saudi Arabia, however, had resisted acceding to the 2020 Abraham Accords, which allowed the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. The kingdom, which considers itself the custodian of Islam’s holiest sites and a leader in the Muslim world, has insisted that Israel should resolve its conflict with the Palestinians before it can normalize relations with Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia had already allowed some flights to Israel to use its airspace. The decision will include all airlines, drastically reducing travel times between Israel and Asia.
The announcement came after US-negotiated negotiations between the kingdom and Israel over security agreements on two Red Sea islands that Egypt had transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2017. Israel is expected to accept the new agreement, which involves the transfer of multinational forces that had been stationed on the islands as part of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, the day-to-day ruler, has expressed interest in improving relations with Israel. Both countries see Iran as their regional rival, and Tehran has supported Houthis rebels in Yemen who have attacked facilities in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia is leading a military intervention against the rebels in the Yemeni civil war.
The US and Israel want to encourage closer military and defense cooperation in the region against Iran. Saudi Arabia already has clandestine intelligence and security ties with Israel, but no announcement is expected about new cooperation during Biden’s visit.
Biden will meet with Saudi leaders on Friday after arriving in the Red Sea city of Jeddah from Israel, including a separate session with the Crown Prince and his ministers. On Saturday he will join a Gulf summit that includes leaders from Egypt and Jordan.
Although the U.S. has pushed the kingdom and other Gulf producers to increase oil production to control rampant world prices, no movement in production is expected during the visit. U.S. officials expect a deal to pump more oil in the coming months.
Still, he will offer the opportunity to re-establish ties between Washington and Riyadh that had been strained since Biden came to office.
Biden had promised to turn the country into a “pariah” for the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Turkey. The CIA concluded that Prince Mohammed had sanctioned the operation, which the prince has denied.
Biden has downplayed the meetings for weeks, saying he was mainly visiting Saudi Arabia for a summit and that his regional tour was aimed at promoting peace. But his visit to Riyadh is seen as a change of face and a recognition that he must do business with Prince Mohammed, who may rule the country for decades to come.
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Human rights groups and relatives of imprisoned Saudi and Egyptian dissidents have criticized Biden for the planned meetings with Prince Mohammed and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Biden had also rejected Sisi after taking office, calling him nearly a year and a half later for the first time after Egypt negotiated a ceasefire to end fighting between Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and Israel.
A senior US official said Biden would discuss human rights during the visit. But when reporters asked him on Thursday, Biden declined to say whether he would consider Khashoggi’s assassination with Prince Mohammed. He said his views on the assassination “are absolutely, positively” clear, but that the visit was aimed at reaffirming U.S. influence in the Middle East.
The senior US administration official said Biden and Saudi leaders will discuss “strengthening and deepening” the truce in Yemen, “balancing energy markets as we look to the coming months” and technological cooperation in 5G and 6G, among other issues.
The United States has been concerned that the Gulf states have been using Chinese 5G and distrusts its growing ties with Beijing.