The report did not refer to the comments by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an interview published on Monday by US magazine The Atlantic, which are the latest public sign that ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel may be growing closer. The prince was asked by the magazine whether the “Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their ancestral homeland?”

“I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation,” said the prince, who is on a three-week US tour. He added that kingdom has no problems with Jews and that “there are a lot of interests we share with Israel.”

He further noted that Saudi Arabia would establish economic ties with the Tel Aviv regime after conflict with the Palestinian Authority is settled. “But we have to have a peace agreement to assure the stability for everyone and to have normal relations.”

Since 2002, Saudi Arabia has been the main sponsor of the Arab Peace Initiative, which envisions a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and United States President Donald Trump hold a telephone conversation discussing the incidents.