Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan says that normalization with Israel would bring "tremendous benefit" to the region, but such an accord with the kingdom would depend on progress in the Israeli-Palestinian Arab peace process, AFP reported Friday. Under the Abraham Accords brokered by former US President Donald Trump last year, four Arab countries -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan -- agreed to normalize ties with the Jewish state. Bin Farhan, however, said on Thursday that any deal with Saudi Arabia was "very much dependent on progress with the peace process". "I think normalizing Israel's status within the region would bring tremendous benefit to the region as a whole," he was quoted as having said during an interview with CNN . "It would be extremely helpful both economically but also socially and from a security perspective," added the Saudi minister. The comments echo those of other Saudi officials, who have repeatedly stressed that while the country backs full normalization with Israel, a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority that results in a Palestinian state must come first. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly held a secret meeting in November in which they discussed the possibility of normalizing relations between their two countries. Subsequent reports said the Crown Prince pulled back from a normalization deal with Israel largely because of the US election result. Riyadh denied the meeting had taken place. (Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of the Seventh Day of Passover in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
