White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, May 13, 2024.
Susan Walsh/AP
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Susan Walsh/AP
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, May 13, 2024.
Susan Walsh/AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Joe Biden’s national security adviser met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman early Sunday to discuss what Saudi Arabia called “a broad security agreement” between the two countries. “Semi-final” version.
The announcement by the state-run Saudi Arabian News Agency came as Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage back to the Gaza Strip, upending the strategic agreement .
Since then, Israeli airstrikes and ground attacks there have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, jeopardizing security agreements that include Saudi Arabia’s first diplomatic recognition of Israel since the founding of the state in 1948.
Saudi Arabian state media did not release images of the meeting between Jack Sullivan and Prince Mohammed in the Far Eastern city of Dhahran, home to state-run oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. Aramco).
“The two sides discussed the semi-final draft of the strategic agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, which is about to be finalized, as well as the ongoing efforts of both parties to find a reliable path on the Palestinian issue,” a statement issued after the meeting said.
This includes “a two-state solution that meets the aspirations and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and “the situation in Gaza and the need to end the war there and facilitate access for humanitarian aid,” the statement added.
Saudi Arabia has long called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along Israel’s 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, this may be untenable for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government depends on the support of hard-liners who oppose a two-state solution and support Israel in land that the Palestinians want Establish settlements on.
The White House has acknowledged Sullivan’s visit and said he will then travel to Israel, where he plans to meet with Netanyahu on Sunday. However, the United States did not immediately issue a statement on the discussions, saying only that the discussions would “include the war in Gaza and ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the region.”
Like other Gulf Arab states, Saudi Arabia has long relied on the United States as a security guarantor across the Middle East, where tensions over Iran’s nuclear program have spiraled into a series of attacks in recent years. Proposals now being discussed could deepen this and reportedly include access to advanced weapons and a possible trade deal.
Saudi Arabia has also pushed for nuclear cooperation in the deal, which includes U.S. permission to enrich uranium in the kingdom — something that worries nonproliferation experts because spinning centrifuges opens the door to possible weapons programs. Prince Mohammed said that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia will pursue nuclear weapons. In recent weeks, Iran has increasingly threatened to do so.
Meanwhile, Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York confirmed that Tehran held indirect talks with U.S. officials in Oman last week. Iran’s state-run Islamic News Agency quoted the delegation as saying the talks were “an ongoing process.”
“This type of negotiation is not the first and will not be the last,” the delegation said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Oman, a sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, has been the site of U.S.-Iran talks in the past, including under Biden, despite tensions between the two countries.
