Radio Islam News and Agencies | 01 Safar 1439/22 October 2017

An Israeli official told AFP on Friday that Saudi Crown Prince Emir Mohammed bin Salman secretly visited Tel Aviv in September, Middle East Monitor(MEMO) has reported.

The official, who requested that his identity remained anonymous, refused to reveal the nature of bin Salman’s meetings in Tel Aviv, the people he met, as well as the results of his discussions with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli official’s statement appeared to confirm original reports by Israeli media in September that alleged that “an emir from the Saudi royal court visited the country secretly on 7 September and discussed with senior Israeli officials the idea of pushing forward regional peace.”

At the time, journalist Ariel Kahana, who works for the nationalist and right-wing weekly Makor Rishon, tweeted: “Bin Salman visited Israel with an official delegation and met with officials,” MEMO said.

A few days later, the famous Saudi blogger “Mujtahid” wrote: “The journalist Noga Tarnopolsky, a specialist in Israeli affairs who possesses international credibility, has confirmed Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Israel.”

Immediately after, the hashtag #Bin_Salman_Visited_Israel topped the most circulated Twitter hashtags in a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Of late, there have been several hints of an escalation in attempts at diplomatic and economic normalisation between certain Arab states and Israel. Officials from Israel and the implicated Arab nations have also increasingly appeared to complement each other in public pronouncements relating to Iran, Qatar and fighting terrorism.

“Israel knows that in confronting the Iranian regime, we are not alone,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly in September.

“We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those in the Arab world who share our hopes for a brighter future. We’ve made peace with Jordan and Egypt, whose courageous president, Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi I met here last night. I appreciate President al-Sissi’s support for peace, and I hope to work closely with him and other leaders in the region to advance peace.”