Riyadh won't move forward on Israel normalization with Netanyahu in office: Haaretz

Senior Saudi officials have recently conveyed to Palestinian leaders that Riyadh will not move forward with normalizing relations with Israel during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power, Palestinian officials told Haaretz, the newspaper reported Sunday.

This follows U.S. President Donald Trump's Friday statement that he is considering agreeing to a deal to supply Saudi Arabia with F-35 stealth fighter jets. The Palestinian officials said that such a deal alone will not suffice for Riyadh to normalize ties with Israel.

“They want to buy a lot of jets,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, Reuters had reported. “I’m looking at that. They’ve asked me to look at it. They want to buy a lot of ’35’ — but they want to buy actually more than that, fighter jets."

The potential sale comes as Trump plans to host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) at the White House next week, when they are expected to sign economic and defense agreements.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Sunday that "having taken part in dozens of discussions on a normalization arrangement with Saudi Arabia, the F-35 deal was never part of any such agreement, because it was clear that Israel's security requires preserving its qualitative military edge," according to Haaretz.

Lapid called for opposing the deal. "Israel cannot, due to the weakness of the current government, give up core security interests and allow the F-35 deal to go through."

Trump told MBS in a phone call last month that, since he had brokered an ostensible cease-fire in Gaza, he expected MBS to move toward normalization with Israel, Axios reported on Friday, citing two U.S. officials.

A U.S. official with direct knowledge of the call, which took place after the "Gaza Peace Summit" in Egypt, said that MBS had responded to Trump's request, saying he was willing to work on normalization alongside the president's administration, Axios had reported.