A Saudi official denied the validity of media reports that talked about a plan to hold a meeting between the Kingdom’s Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Thursday in the UAE.
Reuters agency quoted a Saudi official source, on Wednesday, that Prince Mohammed will not visit the UAE on Thursday and will not meet with Netanyahu.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli broadcaster Kan said that Netanyahu will visit the UAE Thursday, in an opportunity to highlight the new relations with the Gulf states, ahead of Israeli elections in which the competitors’ chances are closely converging.
The authority added that Netanyahu might meet Prince Muhammad there, and that he would hold talks with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and that the Saudi crown prince might join them.
Israel concluded agreements to establish official relations with the UAE and Bahrain in September 2020, in the third and fourth process of normalization with Arab countries in more than 70 years, after Egypt and Jordan.
Saudi Arabia supported these developments, but refused to take a similar step, insisting on the necessity of resolving the Palestinian issue within the framework of the Arab Peace Initiative, first of all.
And Israeli officials and informed sources had previously said in November 2020 that Netanyahu had secretly met Prince Muhammad in the kingdom, but Riyadh denied holding such a meeting.
