Senior Israeli and Saudi officials held several discussions by phone in recent weeks regarding the Biden administration’s plan to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Kan News reported on Tuesday.

The discussions also focused on Saudi Arabia’s concerns about the Biden administration’s focus on human rights. Even before Biden entered office, he stressed that he “will make [the Saudis] the pariahs that they are.”

According to an Axios report on Tuesday, Biden is planning on calling Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Wednesday ahead of the release of a likely damaging intelligence report about the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

The call will be Biden’s first contact as president with Salman.

A previous Axios report said that the Saudis have been “sending signals” to the US that it will improve its human rights record and cooperate on ending the war in Yemen in an effort to avoid a crisis with the Biden administration.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)