US push for Israel-Saudi Arabia ties unlikely to go far before end of Biden’s term, analysts say

The White House’s hopes to seal a ‘triangular’ deal quickly are ‘unrealistic’ due to complications ranging from Saudi demand for a US security pact to the Palestinian issue

Israeli politicians have also voiced objection to Saudi aims to develop a civilian nuclear power programme

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US President Joe Biden. The US has championed the normalisation of relations between Israel and Arab nations in recent years. Photo: AP

Published: 4:00pm, 18 Aug 2023

A major diplomatic push by the United States to normalise relations between its top Middle East allies Israel and Saudi Arabia is unlikely to yield substantial progress by the end of President Joe Biden’s term late next year, analysts said.

The White House’s hopes of concluding a deal so quickly are “unrealistic” because it would require the three countries to reach a complicated “triangular” agreement within the tight time frame of the US presidential election campaign, according to the observers.

“It has to make sense for the United States strategically and has to be saleable to Congress, which will be sceptical,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

To achieve that, the agreement would have to be a “triangular one involving the Israelis” in which a key goal would be the normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, he said.

In return, the US would have to agree to Saudi Arabia’s demand for a security pact that would guarantee American military intervention in the event of an attack on the Gulf kingdom.