(Washington) The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken pleaded Monday in favor of a normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, on the eve of a trip to the Saudi kingdom.
“The United States has a real national security interest in promoting normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said in a speech to the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby in Washington.
“We can and must play a full role in advancing this cause,” said the US Secretary of State, adding, however, that he had “no illusions that this can be done quickly or easily”.
But he insisted he would work on it when he travels to Saudi Arabia from Tuesday to Thursday.
Mr. Blinken is due to travel to Jeddah, the Saudi port where the Saudi royal family is taking up summer quarters, on Tuesday, as well as to Riyadh on Wednesday and Thursday, where he will notably take part in a meeting of the coalition of countries fighting against the group. Islamic State.
Such normalization would take place within the framework of the so-called Abraham Accords which, initiated under former President Donald Trump, allowed several Arab countries to normalize their relations with the Jewish state.
In his speech on Monday, Blinken reaffirmed the United States’ “unwavering” support for ally Israel, to which Washington provides billions of dollars in aid each year, and reiterated that the Biden administration considers the Iran as the main security threat to the Jewish state.
“If Iran rejects the path of diplomacy, then, as President [Joe] Biden has made it clear on many occasions, we are not ruling out any possibility to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, “he assured, denouncing the aggressive activities of the Iran “in the region and beyond”.
He further denounced the growing military ties between Iran and Russia, which provides “sophisticated weapons” to Tehran.