Herzog: Saudi normalization talks could resume as Gaza ceasefire enters next phase
The Israeli president said the rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia “should be the future vision of the Middle East.”
DAVOS, Switzerland — Israel intends to revisit talks to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia “once we move on to the next phase” of the Gaza peace plan, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said.
Speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Herzog praised the Abraham Accords — a set of agreements brokered by the first Trump administration in 2020 to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates.
Herzog said he wanted more countries to join the accords. Saudi Arabia, however, has so far declined, saying normalization with Israel would be conditional on an irreversible pathway toward an independent Palestinian state.
The accords, which also include Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, have had “an immense” impact, Herzog said, given that the Middle East has endured some “very difficult years."
