One of the motivations for the Hamas kidnapping, rape, and murder of Israeli citizens on October 7th was speculated to be an attempt to break up possible rapprochement between the Arab world and Israel. This report suggests a possible partial failure is imminent:
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said on Monday that bilateral agreements with the United States were “very, very close” as Riyadh seeks to secure defense and security pacts with the kingdom in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel.
“On the bilateral agreements between the kingdom and the US, we are very, very close, and most of the work has already been done. We have the broad outlines of what we think needs to happen on the Palestinian front,” the top Saudi diplomat said at a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh.
He added that the only way such agreements would work is if there is “truly a pathway to a Palestinian state.”
In similar comments, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said a US-Saudi security pact with Saudi Arabia was near “completion.” [AL-Monitor]
One might argue that the Saudi stipulating of a guarantee of a Palestinian state is a victory for Hamas, but it’d be weak tea; similarly, such an agreement would take the wind out of the sails of the student protests on American campuses, leaving any non-student instigators without foot soldiers, if such instigators do exist, as has been suggested in some newspaper reports.
