U.S. efforts to broker a normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia remain linked to the conclusion of the war in Gaza, despite the omission of that link from President Joe Biden’s latest comments on the matter.
“This is a package deal … it all works together, or it doesn’t really work at all,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday. “No, we’re not pursuing two separate agreements.”
Miller offered that clarification after Biden stated that the Gulf Arab monarchy has offered to “fully recognize Israel” in exchange for security guarantees and the construction of a “civilian nuclear facility” in Saudi Arabia. Those negotiations were thrown awry on Oct. 7 by the Hamas terrorist attack.
“There are bilateral agreements that would take place between the United States and Saudi Arabia as part of an integration deal, a normalization deal, and then there are other things that have to happen between Saudi Arabia and, of course, Israel,” Miller said. “Saudi Arabia has always made clear that for that to move forward … they need to see calm in Gaza, and they need to see a path to two states. That has not changed.”
Biden put a spotlight on the U.S. aspects of the talks Friday while traveling in Michigan, where he is keen to shore up the support of Arab-American Democrats angered by his administration’s support for Israel over the last several months.
“I got a call from the Saudis: They want to fully recognize Israel in return, if the United States will give them a guarantee that [we] will provide weapons if they’re attacked by [the] other Arab nation, that one just around the corner,” Biden told Complex’s Speedy Morman, in an apparent reference to Iran — which is not an Arab nation but is Saudi Arabia’s primary regional rival.
Biden also said, as part of the arrangement, “we would put a civilian nuclear facility” in Saudi Arabia under U.S. military control “so they can move away from fossil fuels,” which is “a big game-changer in the whole region.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regards recognition of a Palestinian state as a “reward for terrorism,” and Israeli officials across the political spectrum have resisted the subject in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.
“On the Palestinian front, at the end of the day, yes, we are interested in finding some kind of horizon and a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Israeli deputy ambassador Eliav Benjamin said Tuesday on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “But let me be also very clear, especially right after October 7, talks about a two-state solution are not talks that any Israeli is willing to talk about at this point.”
Biden, for his part, maintained that Arab-Americans should regard a vote for him as a vote for peace.
“It’s the best way to keep peace, the best way to put things together, to make sure that there is a two-state solution in the region,” he said.
The nuclear component of the U.S.-Saudi Arabia talks is a controversial one on Capitol Hill, as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has signaled he believes such an agreement would undermine U.S. efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
“Would the construction of an enrichment facility inside Saudi Arabia, as currently stipulated and requested by Saudi officials as an element of a potential normalization deal with Israel, be detrimental to our nonproliferation objectives in the region?”, Murphy said during a recent Senate hearing. “Isn’t it just common sense? I mean, you can’t say on the record that if Saudi Arabia has the ability to domestically enrich that would impact the desire of other countries in the region to be able to domestically enrich? They’re not just going to stand down and allow for Saudi Arabia to have the deal with the United States that they don’t have.”
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Those objections could complicate any effort to finalize a deal this year, given the political pressures of the 2024 presidential election cycle, but Miller demurred when asked if there is still time for Biden to broker such a deal.
“There are two things that [Saudi Arabia] needs to be able to reach a deal. One is calm in Gaza. Two is a path to an independent Palestinian state,” Miller said. “We don’t yet have calm in Gaza. So it’s a little hard to speculate about the timeline of a normalization deal when we haven’t reached the first milestone.”