White House: Saudi has not agreed to recognise Israel yet

The White House said yesterday that there is no agreed on framework requiring Saudi Arabia to recognise Israel yet, and more talks would be needed before any such agreement could be signed.

US officials have for months sought to reach an agreement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says would be a big step toward ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. But Riyadh says reaching such an agreement would be conditional on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Commenting on a Wall Street Journal news report that Washington and Riyadh have “agreed on the broad contours of a deal for Saudi Arabia to recognise Israel in exchange for concessions to the Palestinians,” US National Security spokesperson John Kirby said that more talks are needed for such a deal to be reached.

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“There is still a lot of discussing to happen here,” Kirby told reporters.

“There is no agreed-to set of negotiations, there’s no agreed-to framework to codify normalisation or any of the other security considerations that we and our friends have in the region,” he added.

Commenting on whether US President Joe Biden will meet Netanyahu in the White House, Kirby also said Biden will meet Netanyahu “somewhere in the United States” later this year.

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