A few weeks before his death, US Senator Lindsey Graham worked on a new initiative to broker a historic normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. According to the report of Axios, Graham, who was an experienced leader of the Republican Party and a big supporter of Israel. Saudi-Israel had been working towards normalizing relations for many years, including during the Biden administration. He believed that the US-Israel campaign against Iran had created an opportunity for US President Donald Trump to make such a deal.
According to reports, the senators wanted to launch a vigorous diplomatic effort after the elections in Israel in late October and the midterm elections in the US, so that a deal could be struck before the new US Congress is sworn in in January. The report also said Graham recently urged Trump to authorize a small but forceful military operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the crisis is not resolved through diplomacy before the initiative begins.
Discussion was started in May itself
According to the report, Graham began discussing the idea with Trump in mid-May and told him it should be the focus of the Iran war “the day after.” According to Axios, just a week after that conversation, during a conference call in May, Trump appealed to the leaders of several Arab and Muslim countries to build relations with Israel provided a deal is reached with Iran. The report further said that in recent weeks, Graham had discussed the initiative with senior Trump advisers such as Jared Kushner, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close aide Ron Dermer, Saudi Ambassador to Washington Reema bint Bandar Al Saud and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan. He planned to visit both Israel and Saudi Arabia in August to assess the possibility of a major breakthrough and possibly begin work toward a deal in September.
At the same time, his plan was to work closely with Trump and his team to make it clear to Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders before the elections that this is Washington’s expectation. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously expressed his desire to normalize relations with Israel, but Riyadh has consistently insisted that any deal must include an irreversible path towards the establishment of a Palestinian state and with a fixed timeline. Netanyahu’s current coalition has rejected this condition. In such a situation, it will be a big challenge to get such a promise from Israel’s next government, especially if Washington wants to put pressure on it during the ongoing alliance talks.
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