MBS meets with a Zionist delegation in Riyadh

John Hannah, who served as National Security Adviser to former US Vice President Dick Cheney, revealed the details of a visit he made at the head of a Zionist-American delegation to Saudi Arabia last November.

This came during an interview via “Zoom” program in Washington, which Hannah conducted this week with the “ALL ISRAEL NEWS” website, which stated his saying of them meeting the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman

According to (Al-Ahed News) website, he explained: “We met with the Crown Prince, and we held meetings with the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Commander of the Navy, the Commander of the Air Force, and those responsible for the defense transformation in the Ministry of Defense.”

Hannah added that the Jewish delegation also met Sheikh Mohammed Al-Issa, saying: “We spent a beautiful day in the Muslim World League with Mohammed Al-Issa. Of course, we went to the Anti-Extremism Center.”

“I came out with a stronger impression than I had ever had that the supreme political and security leadership in that country had made a decision that it was, in fact, ready to make “peace” with “Israel” and normalize relations, stressing that they (the Saudis) see it is in their strategic interest to do so,” he added.

“I have a feeling that they have now really thought about the requirements they need to be able to take an irreversible step and take a decision like the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco did, to formally normalize relations with the entity of “Israel.”

Hannah believed that “there is a very serious obstacle standing in front of the normalization of Saudi-Zionist relations, which is not the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government, nor is it also the refusal of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah to agree to any form of direct negotiations.”

According to the site, the Saudis told “Hannah” that the obstacle lies in the tense relationship at the present time between Riyadh and Washington, noting that “Biden’s” visit to the Kingdom last summer was a step in the right direction, but it was not enough.

“We came out with an almost unequivocal message that the problem from the Saudi point of view is not the entity of Israel or the Palestinian issue, but their distrust of the current state of the strategic bilateral relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” Hannah continued.

He added, “They were attacked in the past few years directly by Iranian drones and cruise missiles at the most important oil infrastructure facility in Abqaiq, and the Saudis told us: We were attacked and the United States did not respond.”

Hannah pointed out that for the Saudis, the end result was that “before we can normalize, which is what we want to do, we need to have more confidence that we have a normal strategic partnership with the United States.”