Saudi Arabia's Shahid streaming platform partners with Israeli telecom company: reports

Saudi Arabia's MBC Group's online streaming platform Shahid has signed an agreement with Israeli mobile network operator Partner, news site Arab48 reported on 3 March.

Partner announced the agreement with Shahid - the Arab world's largest platform for content streaming, headquartered in Dubai, Israeli magazine The Marker reported.

The agreement would allow Partner to access content from Shahid, adding that its Arabic-speaking customers would be able to download the Shahid application and purchase subscriptions.

The move came a month after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that normalisation with Saudi Arabia was "possible", in comments at the Hartog National Security Conference in Tel Aviv.

Speculations that Riyadh may join a group of Arab states who have normalised ties with Israel increased in the aftermath of Netanyahu's return to power as Israeli premier, late last year.

Bloomberg reported in February that both countries were "stepping up" security and military talks in meetings which took place ahead of the US-Gulf Cooperation Council Working Group gathering on defence and security, in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia, however, has said that it "rules out" normalisation with Israel until a Palestinian state is established.

However certain measures, such as the opening up of Saudi airspace for Israeli aircraft headed to Asia, have taken place in recent years in a move slammed by Palestinian activists as a step toward normalisation.