Israel and Saudi Arabia negotiating direct flights for Hajj pilgrims, report says

Israel and Saudi Arabia are negotiating a deal that may enable Palestinians with Israeli citizenship to fly on to Saudi Arabia to carry out the Hajj and Umrah spiritual pilgrimages, the Monetary Instances reported on Monday, citing a number of unnamed sources.

The report comes after a senior US official knowledgeable lawmakers final week that extra Arab international locations had been ready to take steps towards normalising relations with Israel, coinciding with President Joe Biden’s go to to the area subsequent month.

“We’re working within the area that isn’t within the public area with a few different international locations,” Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Close to Jap affairs, stated at a Congressional listening to on Wednesday.

“I feel you will notice some fascinating issues across the time of the president’s go to,” she stated.

The US is believed to be brokering a deal between Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to switch management of the Crimson Sea islands Tiran and Sanafir from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, which might require Israel to comply with new safety preparations on the relocation of a multinational drive of observers from the islands to the Egyptian mainland.

In return, Saudi Arabia would enable Israeli airways to fly over its airspace. Presently, solely Israeli flights to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain can fly over the dominion, in addition to Air India flights to and from Israel.

Starting of ‘a path’

Israel introduced on the finish of 2020 that residents would formally be allowed to journey to Saudi Arabia beneath “restricted circumstances”. The permission was granted for instances of enterprise journey, and Muslim residents trying to carry out spiritual pilgrimages.

Palestinian residents of Israel would normally journey to the dominion on non permanent Jordanian papers and needed to cease in Amman. An alternative choice was a 1,000-mile bus trip.

A number of Arab states have moved nearer to Israel lately amid shared safety issues over Iran.

Israel’s defence minister advised lawmakers final week that the nation was serving to to construct a US-led regional air-defence alliance in opposition to Iran and that the partnership had already thwarted tried assaults.

US official hints at progress between Israel and Arab states throughout Biden journey

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Whereas Israel has cooperated with a number of of its Arab neighbours on safety points for a number of years, relations have come out extra within the open because the signing of the 2020 Abraham Accords agreements.

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan all normalised ties with Israel, however the agreements failed to unravel the battle between Israelis and Palestinians,

Saudi Arabia was supportive of the method and officers within the kingdom have spoken about following go well with, however have insisted the nation is not going to transfer ahead till progress has been made on addressing the Israeli-Palestinian battle. 

“I feel we now have at all times seen normalisation as the tip consequence, however the finish results of a path,” Saudi International Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud stated this month on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland.

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“We at all times envisioned that there shall be full normalisation with Israel, and I’ve stated earlier than {that a} full normalisation between us and Israel, between the area and Israel, will convey immense advantages – [but] we cannot be capable to reap these advantages until we tackle the problem of Palestine.”