Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu covertly flew to Saudi Arabia to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
The secretive trip took place in the city of Neom on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast on Sunday. It marked the highest level meeting between Israeli and Saudi officials and could be an indicator of warming relations between the two countries. Israeli news outlets first reported the meeting, and Yoav Galant, the Israeli education minister, confirmed it Monday afternoon.
“The fact that the meeting took place and was made public — even if it was in only a semiofficial way — is something of great importance,” he said, according to the New York Times. “This is something our ancestors dreamed about.”
Data from websites that track flight patterns revealed that a private aircraft traveled from Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv directly to Neom and back, with only five hours on the ground. Bin Salman was scheduled to meet with Pompeo, who is in the middle of a seven-country visit overseas. The U.S. secretary of state was traveling with a press pool, but the pooler did not accompany him to the meeting with Bin Salman.
During the Trump administration, Israel has normalized relationships with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Sudan, the first time in more than 25 years that Arab nations have signed agreements with Israel. The White House played a key role in the agreements. It is unclear if Israel and Saudi Arabia could be heading that way too.
