No time left for Biden to broker Israel-Saudi deal before US election, sources say

The window for US President Joe Biden to broker a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia before the upcoming presidential election has now closed, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

According to a Democratic lawmaker and a senior Republican Senate aide, a normalisation deal can not be reached before November.

Saudi Arabia is currently demanding that Israel agree to establish a future Palestinian state, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated he is against, posing further complications for a deal.

The two congressional sources who spoke to Israeli media said there is not enough time prior to the elections to hold all the necessary hearings to approve the defence deal.

There are just under four weeks in which the US Senate is in session, before it recesses on 27 September until the election.

The congressional sources confirmed that the administration would not be able to secure the backing of around 10 Republicans needed to approve a defence pact with Saudi Arabia weeks before the election.

Another White House official, who spoke to Israeli media on condition of anonymity, also said that a normalisation deal would not be possible without a ceasefire in Gaza first.

Other US and Saudi officials have previously made the same comment, reiterating that Riyadh would not be able to press on with a normalisation deal while Israel continues its war on Gaza.

However, one White House official who also spoke on condition of anonymity argued that the window to secure a ceasefire deal “hasn’t closed completely.”

Ceasefire talks have been ongoing, however critics have accused Netanyahu of systematically derailing them out of fear it will cause his government’s collapse.

Israeli officials told Israeli media that while progress has been made in ceasefire talks in recent days, it may take two or three weeks before a deal is finalised.

A White House official said that even if Biden loses the election, the US could still finalise a deal in the period between the election and the inauguration in January, however the official maintained that this would be complex.