2023-10-21 01:57:46
US President Joe Biden’s speech in the Oval Office. EFE/EPA/JONATHAN ERNST / POOL
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, stated this Friday that the attack by the Hamas terrorist group once morest Israel on October 7 sought to frustrate attempts to normalize relations between the Jewish State and Saudi Arabia, a process that had the support of Washington.
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“One of the reasons why Hamas acted the way it did, why it launched itself once morest Israel, is because it knew that I was going to meet with the Saudis,” Biden said at a fundraising event for his campaign, in the who added that “the Saudis wanted to recognize Israel and that, in fact, would have united the Middle East.”
According to the Bloomberg agency, the United States and Saudi Arabia were working on a framework to recognize Israel in exchange for security guarantees from the North American country.
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Israel has signed diplomatic agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan since 2020, but normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s largest economy, might be a breakthrough for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. and his country.
These efforts are now on hold following the Hamas attack. In the bloody incursion of Palestinian terrorists into Israeli territory, more than 1,400 people died and 200 were taken hostage, prompting Israel’s response with bombings in Gaza and the threat of a ground war to eradicate the group.
The United States and Saudi Arabia were working on a framework to recognize Israel in exchange for security guarantees from the North American country. (EFE/EPA/ANDY RAIN / File)
Sources close to the conflict assured Bloomberg, on condition of anonymity, that the Saudis have paused their work to normalize ties with Israel, but that it is a pause and not the end of diplomacy.
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Saudi Arabia, a Middle Eastern power and home to Islam’s two holiest shrines, welcomed its Gulf neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
Riyadh has not followed suit, saying the goals of a Palestinian state should be addressed first.
The possible normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states was one of the priorities on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s agenda during his June trip to Riyadh, although at the time he acknowledged that imminent progress should not be expected.
Blinken told CNN on October 8 that “it would not be a surprise if part of the motivation (for the attack) was to disrupt efforts to unite Saudi Arabia and Israel.”
Biden told CBS’ 60 Minutes in an interview broadcast last Sunday that the prospect of normalization “is still alive, it will take time.”
Blinken assured that “it would not be a surprise if part of the motivation (of the attack) was to disrupt efforts to unite Saudi Arabia and Israel.” (EFE/EPA/JIM LO SCALZO)
Meanwhile, the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, expressed this Friday that he was relieved that Hamas had freed two American hostages but asked the Palestinian Islamist group to release the others.
“There are still 10 Americans” missing and “we know that some of them are being held hostage by Hamas, along with regarding 200 other hostages held in Gaza,” Blinken said.
“They should be released immediately and unconditionally,” he added.
Among the hostages are “men, women, boys, girls, elderly people, from many countries, each of them must be freed,” insisted the head of US diplomacy.
Two American women who were taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas during its bloody attack on Israel were freed this Friday and are in Israel.
Blinken indicated that a team from the United States embassy will visit them, but did not give details regarding how they are.
Two American women who were taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas during its bloody attack on Israel were freed this Friday and are in Israel. (Government of Israel via AP Photo)
US President Joe Biden said he was “happy” regarding the liberation of women.
“Today we secured the release of two Americans taken hostage by Hamas during the horrific terrorist attack once morest Israel on October 7,” he said in a statement.
“Our compatriots have lived through a terrible experience these last 14 days and I am very happy that they will soon be reunited with their families,” he added.
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