<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Saudi Arabia and Israel voiced optimism Wednesday that they were moving closer to a historic normalization of ties as Iran -- their common foe -- accused the kingdom of betraying the Palestinians through the US-led effort.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US President Joe Biden is hoping to transform the Middle East -- and score an election-year diplomatic victory -- by securing recognition of the Jewish state by Saudi Arabia, the guardian of Islam's two holiest sites.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Biden quipped that he had "Irish optimism" on securing a deal with Saudi Arabia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you and I, 10 years ago, were talking about normalization with Saudi Arabia, I think we'd look at each other like, 'Who's been drinking what?'" Biden -- himself a teetotaler -- said of Israel and the strictly dry kingdom.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Netanyahu, who has had rocky relations with Biden, said he believed a deal was "within our reach" and credited him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia," Netanyahu said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Biden has publicly criticized Netanyahu for overhauling Israel's judiciary, a step seen by domestic critics as undermining democracy, and alluded to the concerns again as he received him in New York rather than at the White House.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Closer 'every day' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Biden's relationship has been even worse with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom the president once vowed to treat as a "pariah" over human rights.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">US intelligence says the crown prince, known by his initials MBS, ordered a 2018 operation to kill and dismember journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an interview with Fox News, MBS said talks were moving forward with Israel, denying a media report that the process was suspended.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Every day we get closer," the prince said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he noted the kingdom was seeking more progress on ensuring the rights of the Palestinians, as Netanyahu's hard-right government continues to pursue controversial settlements in the occupied West Bank.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"For us, the Palestinian issue is very important. We need to solve that part," he said. "We need to ease the lives of the Palestinians."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also warned that Saudi Arabia was closely watching Iran, whose Shiite clerical leaders are arch-foes both of the conservative Saudi kingdom and Israel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Asked how the kingdom would react if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, MBS said, "If they get one, we have to get one."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saudi Arabia has also been seeking security guarantees, including reportedly a treaty, with the United States in return for normalizing with Israel, the region's only nuclear weapons state -- even if an undeclared one.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Iran warning -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and has repaired relations with Saudi Arabia in recent months through talks led by China and through the easing of a proxy conflict in Yemen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But relations remain fraught and memories are fresh over 2019 drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities blamed on Iran.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, addressing reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, said that any deal that aims "to bring security for the Zionist regime" -- Israel -- "will certainly not do so."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We believe that a relationship between regional countries and the Zionist regime would be a stab in the back of the Palestinian people and of the resistance of the Palestinians," Raisi said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel normalized relations decades ago with neighboring Egypt and Jordan and in 2020 added three more Arab states -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco -- in what then US president Donald Trump considered a towering foreign policy achievement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The so-called "Abraham Accords" also included sweeteners from Trump, including a promise to sell top-of-the-line F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, said normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel would be a "transformative event."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To bring these two countries together in particular would have a powerful effect in stabilizing the region, in integrating the region, in bringing people together, not having them at each other's throats," Blinken said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he acknowledged it remained "hard to get there." AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>