Will a “peace covenant” soon be announced that will permanently alter world history in a major way? For months, Israel and Saudi Arabia have been quietly negotiating a deal that would normalize relations between the two nations. But they aren’t the only parties involved. Israel and Saudi Arabia both want formal security agreements with the United States as part of any agreement. In other words, if either of those two nations get attacked, the U.S. military would be required to intervene. The Saudis also want to develop a nuclear power program, and they want U.S. assistance with that. But the biggest barrier to a deal was always going to be the Palestinians. The Saudis are insisting that any agreement must include major concessions from both the U.S. and the Israelis. And the Palestinians are publicly making it known that they will not accept any outcome that does not involve formal U.S. recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. At one time, such a demand would have killed negotiations, but apparently the Biden administration is very open to making such a move.
So much could change during the course of negotiations, and there is still a long way to go.
And if an agreement can be reached, it probably will not happen until the first half of 2024.
But at this moment it appears that something will actually happen. In fact, on Friday National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told the press that “a basic framework” for an agreement has been “hammered out”…
“All sides have hammered out, I think, a basic framework for what, you know, what we might be able to drive at,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“But, as in any complex arrangement, as this will inevitably be, everybody is going to have to do something. And everybody is going to have to compromise on some things,” Kirby said.