ISRAELI MEDIA REPORT NETANYAHU MEETING WITH SAUDI CROWN PRINCE

Israeli media reports and a government source said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had held landmark talks in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but Riyadh denied any such meeting took place, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported. An Israeli government source who requested anonymity confirmed the reports to AFP.

The reports fuelled speculation that the Jewish state may be getting closer to normalizing ties with the biggest Gulf power after its historic US-brokered deals since September with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Israel’s Channel 12 TV, citing an anonymous diplomatic official, said the Saudis told Netanyahu and Pompeo that they are not ready to normalize ties with Israel.

The Israeli news site Walla, followed quickly by other Hebrew-language media, including the newspaper Haaretz cited an unnamed Israeli official as saying that Netanyahu and Yossi Cohen, head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, flew Sunday night to the Saudi city of Neom, where they met with the crown prince. The prince was there for talks with visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. People traveling with Pompeo declined comment. Netanyahu, in a meeting with his Likud Party, also declined to explicitly confirm the visit, Ilan Ben Zion reported for the Associated Press (AP).

“I have not addressed such things for years and I will not start with that now. For years I have spared no effort to strengthen Israel and expand the circle of peace,” Netanyahu said. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, denied on Twitter that the meeting took place. “No such meeting occurred. The only officials present were American and Saudi,” he wrote. He did not elaborate.

The flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com showed a Gulfstream IV private jet took off from Tel Aviv on Sunday night and flew south along the edge of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula before turning toward Neom and landing. The flight took off from Neom over three hours later and followed the same route back to Tel Aviv.