(i24) An unconfirmed report cites the rhetoric of govt ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich as a major obstacle for Riyadh officials

Saudi Arabia reportedly told American mediators it wished to suspend the normalization talks with Israel in view of what Riyadh officials described as the intractability of the Israeli government on certain key issues, notable the Palestinian conflict.

The unconfirmed report appeared Sunday in the Saudi-owned Elaph newspaper, citing unnamed senior Israeli officials as confirming having received such message from Washington. The report cited as an obstacle the rhetoric of two hard-right ministers in the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. Their intransigence on the Palestinian issue precluded any serious progress in the normalization talks, unnamed Saudi officials were quoted as saying.

It is understood U.S. officials have viewed the possibility of a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia as plausible, particularly in light of similar agreements brokered during the previous administration under then-President Donald Trump. The previous accords facilitated diplomatic relations between Israel and several nations, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia, which contains two of Islam’s holiest sites, does not recognize Israel and did not join the 2020 US-brokered Abraham Accords.