Negotiations for a tripartite agreement between Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States are progressing. Saudi Arabia will massively open airspace to Israeli flights and in return Israel will give green light to transfer the islands of Tiran and Fin from Egyptian sovereignty to Saudi sovereignty | The US will begin lifting the boycott of Regent Ben Salman, and the Saudis will increase oil production
A tripartite deal between Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States is being drafted these days, an agreement that will advance the normalization that Israel is so eagerly awaiting after the signing of the Abrahamic agreements with the Gulf states.
According to a report in “Israel Today”, Saudi Arabia is supposed to allow Israeli planes and planes of foreign companies that make their way to Israel to pass indefinitely in Saudi skies, having so far not allowed it. The move is expected to significantly shorten flight times between Israel and a variety of destinations in the Far East, and significantly reduce flight prices.
In exchange for the opening of Saudi airspace, Jerusalem will give the green light for the transfer of the islands of Tiran and Fin from Egyptian sovereignty to Saudi sovereignty. These are two uninhabited but strategically important islands that control the entrance to the Gulf of Eilat.
Egypt is interested in transferring them to Saudi Arabia in exchange for financial assistance from the kingdom, and in fact the two countries have already agreed on the deal. However, since the islands were returned to Egypt as part of the peace agreement with Israel, the contract signed at Camp David requires Israeli approval for their transfer to a third country.
The broker is the United States, which is also expected to benefit from it. The Americans are striving to increase Saudi oil production in order to lower its price, against the background of the embargo imposed on Russian oil and gas following the war in Ukraine.
But Saudi Arabia will want the United States to lift the boycott of Regent Ben Salman in return, but the Americans are willing to grant him only “partial forgiveness” at the moment.
Contacts between Jerusalem, Riyadh and Washington are in the most advanced stages, but final agreements have not yet been reached on the details. The postponement of Biden’s visit to the region, from the original date at the end of June to next month, is apparently related to the American desire to obtain a comprehensive and far-reaching summary between the three countries.