Biden in talks with Saudis for security deal, leaving out Israeli-Saudi peace agreement – report

Senior US and Saudi officials reportedly working to negotiate limited bilateral agreement, after Saudi Crown Prince rules out deal including peace with Israel in the immediate future.

By World Israel News Staff

The Biden administration and the Saudi government are quietly negotiating a limited bilateral security agreement, setting aside long-standing aspirations for achieving a “mega-deal” which would include normalized relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem, Axios reported Monday night.

For years, Israel and Saudi Arabia have conducted closed-door talks aimed at reaching formal recognition between the two powers, extending the Abraham Accords and cementing acceptance of Israel by moderate, U.S.-aligned Arab states.

The clandestine negotiations, brokered by the U.S., reached their apogee prior to last year’s invasion of Israel by Gaza terrorists, after Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi prime minister and Crown Prince who is widely considered the de factor ruler of the oil-rich kingdom, came to the conclusion that a “mega-deal” between Riyahd, Jerusalem, and Washington would only be politically viable during the Biden administration, Axios reported.

The mega-deal would include not only the establishment of full diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but also enhanced security cooperation between all three powers, a defense treaty between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and a green-light to a Saudi civilian nuclear program.

Following the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7th, however, bin Salman has ruled out a deal with Israel, reportedly saying that while an agreement could still be reached at a later date, it could not come until some time after Israel’s war in Gaza has ended.

According to a report by The Atlantic in September, when asked by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken what were the prerequisites for resuming efforts towards a normalization deal, bin Salman said that the war in Gaza must come to a conclusion and Israel leave Gaza.

Now, according to Axios, the Biden administration and bin Salman are rushing to achieve a limited bilateral security agreement before the president leaves office on January 20th.

The proposed agreement would not include provisions for a Saudi-Israeli deal, nor would it address Saudi Arabia’s nuclear ambitions.

Instead, the security agreement would be a scaled-down version of the treaty sought after as part of a mega-deal, and would be modeled on agreements inked between the U.S. and Gulf states including Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, cementing each’s status as American allies.

“Saudi Arabia is part of that and likely to also have something,” one of three sources quoted by the report said.

All three sources said that Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban met with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and senior Biden advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein during a visit to the White House last week.

The sources claimed that during the meeting, the three discuss possible bilateral agreements aimed at strengthening ties with regard to security, technology, and trade.

Biden AdministrationIsrael-Saudi relationsSaudi ArabiaUS-Saudi relations