The Saudi newspaper "Elaf" reported that the Saudis had severed ties with Israel completely • According to the publication, this is Saudi Arabia's punishment after the leak of the meeting between Netanyahu and Ben Salman
Diplomatic stalemate?
The London-based Saudi newspaper Elaf reported last night (Thursday) that a senior Israeli official said the Arab kingdom was not expected to sign a peace deal with Israel at the moment unless progress was made on the Palestinian issue.
As you may recall, about two months ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu secretly met with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
The report also stated that the anonymous source told a reporter for the Ilaf newspaper, Majdi al-Halabi, that attempts to present normalization as something within reach were probably due to personal or political needs.
The Israeli source quoted in the newspaper said that relations with the Saudis were not as they had been in the past.
He revealed that the Saudis had severed ties with the Israelis completely.
According to the report, even indirect exchanges of messages through the Americans were completely stopped, due to the leak of news of the meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in a speech.
As you may recall, after the leak, a denial came out on behalf of Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan.
The Saudi website reported that Saudi Arabia was not content with that, and stopped all means of covert engagement and security coordination through the Americans to punish Israel.
This led to disagreements between the security and political echelons in Israel.
While the security echelon sees relations as part of Israel's national interests, the political echelon runs to tell about the alleged relations or the meeting in a speech.
A source was also quoted on the website as saying that US pressure on Saudi Arabia to sign an agreement had failed.
