Netanyahu made secret Saudi visit: Israeli media
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Israel鈥檚 Kan public radio and Army Radio said yesterday.
If confirmed, it would be the first publicly acknowledged trip by an Israeli leader to ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, which has traditionally championed the Palestinian cause and shunned all official contacts with Israel. As US President Donald Trump鈥檚 term winds down, Pompeo has been trying to coax the Gulf powerhouse to follow its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in establishing formal relations with Israel.
Netanyahu鈥檚 office and the US Embassy in Jerusalem had no immediate comment.
Saudi state media made no mention of any visit by Netanyahu, and the Saudi government鈥檚 media office did not immediately respond to queries.
The rapprochement between Israel and the Gulf states is built largely on shared concerns about Iran 鈥 and, potentially, about whether US President-elect Joe Biden will review Washington鈥檚 regional policies.
Netanyahu was accompanied by the head of Israel鈥檚 Mossad intelligence agency, Yossi Cohen, Kan reported.
Cohen has spearheaded discreet diplomatic outreach to Gulf Arab states, said the Israeli media reports, quoting unidentified Israeli officials.
Riyadh has so far declined to normalize ties with Israel. But since August it has allowed Israeli airliners to overfly Saudi territory to newly available Gulf destinations and Asia.
Avi Scharf of Israel鈥檚 Haaretz newspaper published aviation tracking data showing that a business jet had made a brief trip from Tel Aviv to Neom, on Saudi Arabia鈥檚 Red Sea coast, where bin Salman and Pompeo had a scheduled meeting on Sunday.
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