Israel wants to see many safeguards put in place to ensure that Saudi Arabia’s civilian nuclear program can't be weaponized, a senior Israeli official told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.
“Israel and the United States have the same position” on the nuclear aspect of the deal, the official said, adding that Israel doesn’t plan to back down from its principled points of concern.
The official spoke after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden met in New York amid a push for a security pact between Washington and Riyadh that would include a normalization deal with Israel.
Both men spoke of their hope for such a trilateral deal, which Biden noted had been unthinkable a decade ago, joking that he suffered from Irish optimism.
“If you and I ten years ago were talking about normalization with Saudi Arabia we would look at each other [and say] who has been drinking what.”
Netanyahu quipped, “good Irish whisky.”
Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia
On a serious note, Netanyahu told Biden, “I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“I think such a peace would go a long way first to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state, and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“This is something within our reach. I believe that working together we can make history and create a better future for the region and beyond,” Netanyahu stated.
Both he and Biden referenced the importance of the project the US unveiled earlier this month, called the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). The energy corridor linking Asia and Europe would be linked through the Middle East and involve Israel, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
It’s viewed as a precursor of the type of cooperation that would follow a Saudi-Israel normalization deal.
Saudi Arabia is seeking a security pact from Washington, the ability to purchase sophisticated weaponry and US approval for a civilian nuclear program that could involve the ability to enrich uranium.
It’s a demand that has caused concern over whether such a program would give Riyadh the ability to produce nuclear weapons if so desired. It’s a step that could help open up a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. The pressure is on Washington to support their demands so that Saudi Arabia would not push forward with its civilian nuclear program under the direction of the Chinese.
The White House statement after the Netanyahu-Biden meeting did not mention Saudi Arabia. A senior Israeli official, however, told Israeli reporters that the bulk of the meeting about about the deal.
The “conversation dealt with how to advance peace and how to put in place this agreement,” the official said.
When quizzed by The Jerusalem Post about the safeguards Israel would need to ensure that the program was not weaponized, the official replied “Many.”
The official hinted that the Saudi civilian nuclear program might not include an enrichment component, noting that one should not presume what the details of such a program would be under the deal.
Israel has been under pressure from the United States to make concessions to the Palestinians as part of the deal, but no details have been provided as to what those concessions would be.
Netanyahu’s coalition partners, the Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit, have said they would not support such concessions.
The official said that it was possible to finalize a deal without jeopardizing Netanyahu’s coalition.
The Palestinians should be part of the process, the official said.
“The Palestinians have to be part of the process but they should not have a veto on the process,” the official stated.