A significant breakthrough has been made in a potential relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Yisrael Hayom reported on Sunday.

An actual normalization deal is not anticipated in the near future due to King Salman’s continued opposition to the move but in the course of the visit of the US delegation headed by White House adviser Jared Kushner last week, an accord between the United State, Israel, and Saudi Arabia was suggested, similar to the Serbia-Kosovo-US-Israel agreement announcement on Friday.

US President Donald Trump is expected to invite Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington ahead of the US elections in November, according to a Globes report, quoting a senior Saudi source.

The Saudi source ruled out a meeting between bin Salman and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏, saying: “It is still too early. Israel needs to show much more political readiness before this will happen. Opening the skies to Israeli flights above our country is a big move forward, and enough at this stage.”

A senior Israeli official told Globes: “There is opposition in Saudi Arabia (to normalization with Israel) including from the king.”

Some US administration officials believe that a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel is not necessarily in Israel’s best interests since unlike the UAE, the kingdom has anti-Israeli sentiments and any peace will be a “cold peace” such as the peace between Israel and Jordan and Egypt.

The United States has kept a distance from Saudi Arabia for the past two years in the wake of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. The US Congress halted arms deals with Saudi Arabia following the revelation of the grisly murder.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)