The United States and Saudi Arabia have been working on a deal by which the latter could recognize Israel in exchange for concessions to the Palestinians.
It appears the two countries have agreed upon the broad outlines of the potential deal in which Saudi Arabia would also receive U.S. security guarantees and assistance with civil nuclear development projects, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The deal has the potential to be one of the most consequential Middle East peace deals in a generation, U.S. officials claimed.
Negotiators said they believe they can hammer out the finer details within the next year, according to WSJ.
The Saudis want the creation of a Palestinian state, and the United States wants the Saudis to impose limits on their relationship with China.
U.S. negotiators asked for assurances from the Saudis that they would not allow China to build military bases in their kingdom.
Brian Katulis, vice president of policy at the Middle East Institute, compared the diplomatic effort to mountain climbers trying to scale several Mount Everests one after the other.
“It’s such a dangerous landscape,” he told WSJ. “There are four or five things they need to do to make sure they don’t go into thin air and go off the mountain. To me, it seems highly improbable in the short run, but who knows?”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the issue of Palestinian autonomy comes up in negotiations “a lot less than you think.”
“It’s sort of a check box,” he told Bloomberg News. “You have to check it to say that you’re doing it.”
Netanyahu declined to say if he would accept West Bank settlement limitations to reach a deal. However, he said he would not allow a Palestinian state unless Israel had control over security.
“You won’t have a Palestinian state — you’ll have an Iranian terror state,” he warned, according to Bloomberg.
“The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves and none of the powers to threaten Israel. This means that in whatever final peace settlement we have with the Palestinians, Israel has the overriding security power in the entire area — ours and theirs,” Netanyahu added.
