In the News
JNS covered the latest from the Israel-Hellenic Forum, organized by the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem.
The United States believes that a landmark diplomatic deal normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is achievable, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Tuesday.
The remarks come as the Biden administration has embarked on an intense diplomatic push to reach such an agreement, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said could pave the way to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“There is an increased American involvement on the issue,” Hanegbi told JNS in an interview in Cyprus. “They believe that there is a possibility [to reach an agreement].”
Hanegbi said that the Americans had not yet updated the Israeli government on the contours of such an agreement or what their vision is, and said that the situation remains murky.
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Praise for trilateral ties with Greece and Cyprus
Hanegbi also cited the blossoming trilateral relations between Israel with Greece and Cyprus, which was the focus of the conference organized by the B’nai B’rith World Center.
“Now we have such close friends like Cyprus and Greece, after many years of no relationship with Greece,” he said. “I see with my own eyes how intimate and crucial this relationship is.”
Greece established relations with Israel in 1990 after decades of supporting the Arabs, with ties flourishing with the Jewish state over the last decade and a half.
Referring to the energy talks underway between the three countries he said: “10 or 20 years ago it would have seemed like science fiction to bring [Israeli] gas through the ocean to the people of Europe.”