- Saudi Arabia opens its airspace to all civilian carriers, including flights to and from Israel.
- The move is a step toward normalizing relations between the two countries.
- US Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to fly directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia on Friday.
Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to all civilian carriers on Friday, including flights to and from Israel, in a step toward normalizing relations between the two countries as US Vice President Joe Biden tours the Middle East.
Biden praised the kingdom’s decision in a statement released hours before he was scheduled to fly directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia, saying it could “help build momentum toward Israel’s further integration into the region.”
For months, the Biden administration has worked to formalize security and economic agreements between Saudi Arabia and Israel in order to lay the groundwork for a bilateral normalization agreement.
A possible normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia has been hailed as the “crown jewel” of Jewish state-Arab world agreements. As part of a wave of agreements at the end of former President Donald Trump’s term, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan normalized relations with Israel in 2020.
This is the first time the kingdom has granted Israeli airlines unrestricted access to its airspace to fly to and from the country. Saudi Arabia recently barred Israeli airlines flying from Tel Aviv to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain from using its airspace.
The decision effectively lifts Israel’s decades-long ban on overflights over Saudi airspace. Previously, Israeli airlines flying to Asian destinations such as India and China had to circumnavigate Saudi Arabia for an hour.
Following Saudi Arabia’s decision, Biden vowed to do everything in his power “through direct diplomacy and leader-to-leader engagement to continue advancing this historic process.”
The Saudi announcement was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who described it as the culmination of a “long road of intense and covert diplomacy with Saudi Arabia and the United States.” He stated that the decision was “just the beginning,” and promised that more positive relations would follow.
Lapid also thanked Biden and wished him luck in his upcoming summit in Jeddah on Saturday.
