Israel hopes Biden trip will help 'improve relations' with Saudi Arabia as Lapid eyes normalisation

Israel's foreign minister said on Wednesday that Israel is looking to US President Joe Biden's Mideast trip next month to help normalise relations with Saudi Arabia, a country with which it does not have official ties.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid spoke a day after the White House announced the whirlwind trip to Israel and the occupied West Bank followed by a flight to Saudi Arabia.

At a news conference in Jerusalem, Lapid was asked about his expectations from Biden's expected stop in the kingdom and first said he didn't want to “steal the show from the president's visit”.

“The fact that the president’s going to fly directly from here to Saudi Arabia is probably signifying that there is a linkage between the visit and the ability to improve relations,” Lapid said.

Israeli leaders have long said they want to add countries to the four Arab states - Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates - that established diplomatic ties with Israel known as the Abraham Accords. The agreement was condemned by Palestinians and allies for overturning years of Arab policy to isolate Israel due to their systemic human rights abuses against Palestinians. 

“There is a list of target countries: Saudi is first among them,” along with other nations such as Indonesia, he told reporters.

Asked whether there would be an Israeli official on the plane to the kingdom, Lapid said he didn't know. But he joked that "Air Force One is a big plane, maybe we’ll hide someone in a bathroom”.

Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have official diplomatic relations but have shared clandestine security ties over a shared enmity of regional arch-rival Iran. It has long been rumoured to be among the Arab states considering the establishment of open ties with Israel.

In 2020, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly flew to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

That purported meeting came shortly after Israel had established full relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan as part of the US-brokered “Abraham Accords.” A similar normalisation agreement was later inked with Morocco.