Israel says Biden to carry ‘message of peace’ to Saudi Arabia

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Sunday US President Joe Biden will carry a “message of peace and hope” to Saudi Arabia.

Biden is scheduled to arrive in Israel this week as part of a tour that will also include the West Bank city of Ramallah and Saudi Arabia.

“From Jerusalem, the [US] president’s plane will fly to Saudi Arabia, and he will carry with it a message of peace and hope from us,” Lapid said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting.

“Israel reaches out to all the countries in the region and calls on them to build ties with us, to establish relations with us and to change history for the sake of our children,” he said.

Israel and Saudi Arabia don’t have diplomatic relations.

In 2020, Israel signed US-sponsored agreements to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, in a move decried by Palestinians as a “stab in the back”.