Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the United States to reaffirm its commitment to Saudi Arabia and pledged to pursue formal Israeli ties with the Middle Eastern country for a “quantum leap” in peace, Al Arabiya English reports.
The US-Saudi strategic partnership has frayed under US President Joe Biden’s administration and there has been tension between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, which forged relations with Israel.
“The traditional (US) alliance with Saudi Arabia and other countries, has to be reaffirmed. There should not be periodic swings, or even wild swings in this relationship, because I think that the alliance… is the anchor of stability in our region,” Netanyahu told the Saudi-owned website.
“I’m to speak to President Biden about it,” Netanyahu said according to a published transcript of the interview.
Having come ahead in a November election, Netanyahu is in talks on forming a coalition with religious-nationalist partners and has until December 21 to finalise the government.
Netanyahu said he was committed to building on normalisation pacts signed with the UAE and Bahrain in 2020 under his leadership, known as the Abraham Accords, which created a new axis in the face of Iran’s growing influence in the region.
Read the article in the Mandurah Mail (AAP).