White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan raised the topic of normalization with Israel during his recent meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing three US and Arab sources.

According to the report, bin Salman didn’t nix the idea out of hand, instead saying it would take time and providing Sullivan with a list of steps that would have to be carried out first. One of the steps is the advancement of US-Saudi relations.

The report added that senior Biden administration officials told Jewish leaders in a conference call last Friday that the US is quietly making efforts to encourage additional Arab or Muslim countries to normalize ties with Israel.

It should be noted that bin Salman has reportedly been consistently open to normalizing ties with Israel but his father King Salman is adamantly opposed to it.

However, several Trump administration officials have privately said that if Trump would have been re-elected, they would have succeeded in convincing Saudi Arabia to join a peace deal with Israel. Former White House adviser Jared Kushner reportedly urged Sullivan to encourage a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)