White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will travel to Saudi Arabia Tuesday to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about a potential mega-deal that would include Saudi normalization with Israel, Axios’ Barak Ravid reported on Monday. Sullivan will travel to Saudi Arabia with White House Middle East czar Brett McGurk, who has been negotiating the defense treaty, and senior energy adviser Amos Hochstein, who has been negotiating the nuclear understandings. The White House continues to work toward a draft US-Saudi defense treaty and understandings related to US support for a Saudi civilian nuclear program, four US and Israeli officials quoted in the report said. US officials hope to reach a bilateral agreement with the Saudis and then possibly present it to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose side of the deal would include committing to a path toward a two-state solution, according to Axios . "There has been lot of progress in the talks between the US and Saudi Arabia about their draft defense treaty. They want to have their side of the deal ready and then put it on our table and say, 'Take it or leave it," a senior Israeli official told Axios . The White House declined to comment. The Saudi embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. Israel and Saudi Arabia appeared to be on track towards normalization before Hamas’ October 7 attack against Israel and the war in Gaza which followed. Shortly after the start of the war in Gaza, sources told Reuters that Saudi Arabia is putting the US-backed plans to normalize ties with Israel on ice. Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, later said that he believes talks on normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia will resume immediately after the conclusion of the war in Gaza. Related articles: Saudi official condemns Trump’s Gaza plan 'No normalization with Israel without a Palestinian state' 'Sovereignty is part of the absolute victory!' 'There will be no normalization without a Palestinian state' In late March, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States and Saudi Arabia have made "good progress" in talks on normalizing ties between the kingdom and Israel. "I believe we can reach an agreement, which would present a historic opportunity for two nations, but also for the region as a whole," Blinken said.
