Trump presses MBS to move towards normalization with Israel: Report
Iran Press TV
Friday, 14 November 2025 3:42 PM
US President Donald Trump has pressed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to move toward normalization with Israel, after a ceasefire was reached in Gaza, US officials say.
Citing two US officials, Axios said Trump made the request in a phone call held last month after the Gaza summit in Egypt, where a ceasefire deal was signed.
A US official with direct knowledge of the call said Trump told MBS that now that the war ended, he wanted the crown prince to move toward normalization with Israel.
MBS responded that he was willing to work on it with the US administration, according to the US official.
US officials have told Riyadh they're hoping for progress on that issue around the upcoming meeting between Trump and MBS at the White House next week, though they acknowledge the gaps between the Saudis and Israelis remain wide, the report said.
"Our message to the Saudis is: 'We did all the things you asked for. Now, there are things President Trump wants, like normalization with Israel. So how are you guys going to move now in this direction?'" a senior US official said.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, which has made the Saudi public much more anti-Israeli, was a major obstacle to the normalization deal but not the only one.
US officials believe that some of the other Saudi demands for moving toward normalization have now been met.
Riyadh has long insisted that it will only normalize ties with Tel Aviv if it agrees to establish a time-bound, irreversible pathway to a future Palestinian state.
The White House believes the final two clauses of Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan put Palestinian statehood on the table.
The plan says that if the Palestinian Authority "faithfully" conducts reforms during the reconstruction of Gaza, "the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people."
It also says the US will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a "political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence."
Former US officials and Arab diplomats doubt that language meets the demand of Riyadh.
According to a former US official who is close to Saudi leadership, MBS needs much stronger commitments directly from Israel, with tangible steps on the ground, in order to sell normalization to the Saudi nation.
The Saudis also sought a defense pact with Washington, and they are expected to get a security pledge from Trump during MBS' visit that could serve as a platform for a full-fledged defense treaty.
However, US officials rule out the possibility that ongoing discussions could lead to any breakthrough regarding normalization during MBS' visit.
Trump earlier this month claimed that Saudi Arabia will normalize relations with the Israeli regime without any preconditions, including the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"He has said they won't join the Abraham Accords without a two-state solution. Do you believe that?" CBS correspondent Norah O'Donnell asked Trump about MBS.
"No, I think he's going to join," Trump responded. "I think we will have a solution. I don't know if it's going to be two-state, that's going to be up to Israel, and other people, and me."
The UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco signed the US-brokered normalization pact with Israel in 2020, drawing condemnations from Palestinians who slammed the deals as "a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people."
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