Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Wednesday held out the prospect of a visit in the future to Saudi Arabia, and said at least one more Arab country would normalise ties with Israel this year.

“This (visit to Saudi Arabia) is on the table, there is no date yet,” he said, speaking to Israel’s Army Radio during a state visit to Azerbaijan.

In 2020, Israel reached accords to normalise ties with Saudi Arabia’s Gulf neighbours, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and later included Morocco in the so-called Abraham Accords.

It has made no secret of its desire for closer ties with Saudi Arabia, which has held back on formally recognising Israel in the absence of a resolution to Palestinian statehood goals.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said normalisation with Riyadh would be a “giant step” towards ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Cohen said that this year at least one more country would join the Abraham Accords, without elaborating.

He added that the issue of normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia came up during US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week.

“The enemy of Saudi Arabia is certainly not Israel. Its enemy is Iran,” Cohen said on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia and Iran ended years of hostility following a China-brokered agreement in March.

When asked about the restoration of ties between Riyadh and Tehran, Cohen said that such a development could bode well for Israel.

“It is precisely this thing that can lead to a balancing act of [Saudi Arabia] moving closer to Israel,” he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jeddah where the two discussed the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Opinion

Editorial

Smog hazard
Updated 05 Nov, 2024

Smog hazard

The catastrophe unfolding in Lahore is a product of authorities’ repeated failure to recognise environmental impact of rapid urbanisation.
Monetary policy
05 Nov, 2024

Monetary policy

IN an aggressive move, the State Bank on Monday reduced its key policy rate by a hefty 250bps to 15pc. This is the...
Cultural power
05 Nov, 2024

Cultural power

AS vital modes of communication, art and culture have the power to overcome social and international barriers....
Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.