US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that many more countries are on the way to reaching new peace deals in the Middle East.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, following the signing of Israel’s peace agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Trump said he expected Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel as well.
Asked if he expected Saudi Arabia to follow suit, Trump said "I do. I spoke with the king of Saudi Arabia."
He added the move would come "at the right time."
"I think seven or eight or nine" more countries would normalize relations with Israel, continued Trump.
Trump recently said he expected Saudi Arabia to join the Israel-UAE deal. A senior member of the Saudi royal family later stressed that Saudi Arabia’s price for normalizing relations with Israel is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz reiterated that position during a conversation with Trump last week, saying there would be no normalization with Israel without Palestinian statehood.