Down to the Wire

Inauguration Day is now only 50 days away, and the ferment in the Middle East is palpable. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman last week, and there have been reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Mossad head Yossi Cohen were present at the meeting as well. On the agenda: normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, even before Trump leaves office.

That particular meeting yielded no results, but Trump’s envoys Kushner and Berkowitz returned to the region this week for another meeting with Bin Salman, as well as with the emir of Qatar. The latter is a piece in the same puzzle. Washington understands the hostility and suspicion with which Qatar is viewed by the rest of the region, due to its reputation for playing a double game with Iran and the Gulf States. The tension around Qatar is a worrying factor, a potentially destabilizing influence that could hamper Israel’s ongoing rapprochement with the Arab world.

What exactly is each country demanding, and does Kushner stand a chance of resolving the crisis before January 20? That’s a hard question to answer. But one thing is clear — Kushner’s team is determined to leave behind him as long a list of possible of normalization agreements between Israel and the Arab world, and talks will continue until the last minute.

While Saudi Arabia is perceived as the biggest prize in the region, there are a number of other Muslim states that could conceivably normalize ties with Israel in the next two months — Oman and Morocco, for instance. But it seems that most countries are taking the approach that it’s wiser to wait for the Biden administration, in order to open relations with the next president on the right foot.