Tue 01 December 2020:
Saudi Arabia agreed to let Israeli airliners cross its airspace en route to the United Arab Emirates after talks between Saudi officials and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, news agency Reuters and Israeli media outlets have reported.
Kushner and Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook raised the issue shortly after they arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks. “We were able to reconcile the issue,” an official from the administration of United States President Donald Trump told Reuters on Monday.
According to the Israeli i24news, the Tel Aviv administration asked Washington to persuade Saudi Arabia to allow use of its airspace, and Jared Kushner, adviser to outgoing US President Donald Trump, stepped in and Saudi Arabia allowed Israeli aircraft to use its airspace.
This will help the route of Israeli flights to UAE — to start from this month onwards — shorten by half.
The permit was only valid for the UAE and Israeli companies will not be allowed to use the Saudi Arabian airspace for flights to other countries, added the local media report.
In October, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority signed an agreement with the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority on air transport services between the two countries.
The UAE and Israel signed the US-sponsored agreements to normalize their relations in September, with the two sides inking a host of agreements in the fields of investment, trade, science, and technology.
UAE has already reaped benefits from normalisation, including the White House pushing forward with arms sales, including an advanced fighter jet, to the Gulf country.
Kushner and his team were to meet the emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the emir of Kuwait later this week.
One goal of the trip is to try to persuade Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to end a three-year blockade of Qatar.
Qatar has been under an air, land and sea blockade imposed by GCC members Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, and non-GCC member Egypt, since June 2017.
They cut ties with Doha after claiming it supported “terrorism”.
Qatar has vehemently rejected the allegations, saying there was “no legitimate justification” for severing relations.
The normalization agreements have drawn widespread condemnations from the Palestinians, who say the accords ignore their rights and do not serve the Palestinian cause.
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