The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contradicted US President Joe Biden, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said that the decision to open its airspace for Israel has “nothing to do with diplomatic ties with Israel” and is “not in any way precursor to any further steps” toward normalization.
US President Joe Biden started his Middle East tour and arrived in Israel on Wednesday. In his opening remarks at the Israeli Air Force airport, he said one doesn’t need to be a Zionist and described the US-Israel relationship as “bone-deep”.
On Thursday Biden said in Israel that he strongly supports the Abraham Accords (an agreement of normalization of Israel with Arab World) and called the declarations as a way to integrate Israel in the Middle East.
“We will also continue building on the Abraham Accords, which I strongly support because they deepen, they deepen Israel’s integration into the broader region and establish lasting ties for business, cooperation and tourism,” Biden said during a press conference.
On Friday, Biden took a direct flight to Saudi Arabia from Israel and during his stay, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to all the airlines flying in and out of Israel, a change that is part of Biden’s efforts to normalize relations of Israel in the Middle East. His four-day trip ended on Saturday.
However, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia says the development “has Nothing o do with diplomatic ties with Israel.”
In a press conference after the GCC+3 summit in Jeddah, he said the issue of over flights is a decision we took based on our commitments… and also in the interest in providing connectivity between countries in the world, and we hope that it will make some travellers’ lives easier. It’s not in any way a precursor to any further steps.
In Saudi Arabia, on Late Friday Biden called the overflights decision “a big deal — not only symbolically but substantively.”
“This is the first tangible step on the path of what I hope will eventually be a broader normalization of relations” between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Biden added.
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid also welcomed the Saudi move “opening Saudi airspace to Israeli airlines” as “the first official step in normalization with Saudi Arabia.”
He added: “I thank the Saudi leadership for the opening of Saudi airspace. This is only the first step.”
Rising fuel prices due to the Ukraine invasion were another important factor in Biden’s Saudi visit but the move was criticized because Biden had promised during his 2020 presidential campaign to make the Saudi government “pay the price and make them in fact the pariah that they are,” over the involvement of Saudi King MBS Mohammed Bin Salman in the murder of journalist Jamal Khasoggi to whom the CIA (US’ Central Investigation Agency) has said likely ordered the brutal 2018 slaying in Turkey.
Earlier, the US appealed to the Saudi kingdom to pump more oil to help bring prices down and days before the president's trip was announced, Opec Plus, the oil producer's group of which Saudi Arabia is the de facto leader, approved a modest increase in production.
While the Palestinian militant oufit Hamas denounced Saudi's move of opening airspaces to Israel, Palestanian factions called Abraham Accords absurd. Officially, the Saudi Arabia doesnt not recognise the state of Israel.