Saudi Arabia has agreed to allow Israeli commercial planes headed to the UAE to fly through its airspace, Reuters reported.
The decision followed a meeting between Saudi officials and Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner.
Kushner, alongside American envoys in the Middle East, initiated the discussion shortly after arriving in Saudi Arabia. The agreement was made hours before Israel conducted its first commercial flight to the UAE.
The low-cost Israir flight had been at risk of being canceled due to the lack of an overflight agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
“We were able to reconcile the issue,” an official from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration told Reuters on Monday. Officially, Saudi Arabia and Israel have no diplomatic relations.
“This should resolve any issues that should occur with Israeli carriers taking people from Israel to the UAE and back and to Bahrain,” the White House official added.
The newfound agreement is an offshoot of the normalization deals Israel secured over the past year with neighboring countries, namely the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan.
It also comes as the United States prepares for a transition of power between current President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, who is set to take office on January 20th.
Trump’s administration has played a significant role in activating the peace deals between Israel and the aforementioned Arab countries.
It also contributed to the start of the border demarcation talks between Lebanon and Israel in mid-October, the latest round of which were postponed on Monday until further notice.
