What should the US do to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia?

For President Joe Biden, a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia is the Holy Grail of diplomatic deals in the Middle East.

Normalization would have positive ripple effects throughout the region, fully incorporate Israel into the Middle East’s political order and bring the White House a significant foreign policy win less than a year before the 2024 presidential election campaign gets underway.

That’s the conventional wisdom. But is it correct? How beneficial would an Israeli-Saudi normalization accord actually be for the U.S.? Would it be as groundbreaking to the regional order as we are led to believe? And what would Washington have to concede to make it happen?

One would hope the Biden administration is asking all of these questions as U.S. officials travel to Saudi Arabia to cajole Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman into making history.

What can’t be questioned is the degree to which the White House is interested in bringing Israel and Saudi Arabia, arguably its two closest security partners, into a formal embrace. In May, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan visited the kingdom, followed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s shuttle diplomacy in June, when he briefed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on what Riyadh may be willing to consider. Sullivan made a return trip to Saudi Arabia last week in what was billed as an attempt to “advance a common vision” for a more secure and peaceful Middle East. The Biden administration is trying to hash it all out by the end of the year.

Read article in The Chicago Tribune

Author

Daniel
DePetris

Fellow