Israeli-Saudi normalization is within reach: Atlantic Council

High on the agenda of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House is a potential deal to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Trump wants to move fast on it, having dispatched his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to Riyadh both during the transition and last week.

By M.A. Saki

Xi sees opening to reduce U.S. presence in Persian Gulf: professor

TEHRAN – Hossein Askari, a professor emeritus of business and international affairs at George Washington University, sees the high-profile visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Saudi Arabia as effort to “reduce the power and presence of the United States in the Persian Gulf” by capitalizing on the “rocky relationship” between U.S. President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).