According to an official White House release, “National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 27, 2023, to meet with Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and senior Saudi officials to discuss bilateral and regional matters, including initiatives to advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous, and stable Middle East region interconnected with the world.”
It must be stressed that for the Saudis, rapprochement with Israel, as well as the two-state solution, are secondary issues. As Yoel Guzansky wrote in INSS last March, “The recent rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran has not significantly changed the basic facts in this context, including the Kingdom’s perception of the Iranian threat.”
Sullivan traveled with Brett McGurk, the White House Middle East czar, and Amos Hochstein, Biden’s senior adviser for energy and infrastructure.
As the NY Times summarized the visit, “No breakthrough was announced, but the fact that Mr. Sullivan returned to the kingdom so soon after his last trip in May suggests that the Biden administration sees serious prospects for an accord.”
Sullivan met with bin Salman in May, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the crown prince in June.
And in a campaign stop on Saturday in Freeport, Maine, President Biden told his audience: “The world is changing in a big way. And we want to promote democracies — democracies. Watch what’s happened in the Middle East. I got criticized for going to Saudi Arabia, remember? Well, guess what? I got them to prevent overflights for — for — for Israel. So, they — there’s a rapprochement may be underway.”
According to the Saudi Press Agency, the Crown Prince and Sullivan reviewed “the strategic relations between both countries and means of enhancing them across various fields,” as well as the latest regional and international developments that are of common interest.
As Guzansky noted, “The majority of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, initiated by Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, is devoted to the necessity of reducing the country’s dependence on oil and establishing a diverse, competitive, and sustainable economy. Inter alia, the Kingdom decided to pursue the nuclear road, with energy-economic justifications, although this is also somewhat of an answer to Iran and effort contribute to Riyadh’s prestige and status.”
Last January, Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced that the kingdom plans to use process its own uranium to build up its nuclear power industry. It turns out there’s a lot of uranium to be mined in Saidi Arabia, the country Allah gifted with both huge deposits of oil and the means to create nuclear energy.
“The kingdom intends to utilize its national uranium resources, including in joint ventures with willing partners in accordance with international commitments and transparency standards,” Abdulaziz bin Salman said.
To get its nuclear program going, Saudi Arabia needs help from a nuclear superpower. At this point, they prefer the US, but based on their recent behavior, they would just as likely turn to China, which brokered the restoration of its diplomatic relations with Iran.
Oh, and the Saudis also want a NATO membership, to solidify a commitment from the West to defend it against an Iranian attack.
Back to the peace with Israel, Tom Friedman reported last week that while neither Saudi Arabia nor Israel cares a hoot about the future of a Palestinian State, and the only one pushing for the 2-state solution as a condition for peace between Riyad and Jerusalem is President Joe Biden.
But on Saturday, the NY Times report stressed that Israeli officials were given the impression that while the first phase of the negotiations did not include any demand for significant Israeli concessions to the 2-state plan, “it is now believed that a deal would require significant progress on the issue.” That’s because King Salman intervened in the negotiations and insists that any deal must include “a clear Israeli move toward the Palestinians.”
And the king “would not be satisfied with a promise by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to annex the West Bank,” but a “significant action on the ground.”
Thank God, kings, like the rest of us, are biodegradable.
