Mike Pompeo
Mike PompeoOfficial White House Photo by Andrea Hanks

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that "many" people in Saudi Arabia want normalized relations with Israel, expressing hope the kingdom will join the Abraham Accords which were negotiated during former President Donald Trump's administration, AFP reported.

Pompeo made the comments in a recorded video address to the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement, which will give him its inaugural Global Leadership Award on Monday.

"Predicting the future has proven a struggle for me," Pompeo said, adding that he thinks "many more" countries will seek ties with Israel.

"I hope that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can find its way to join the Abraham Accords. I know that many inside that country want that to take place," continued Pompeo.

In recent years there have been reports of secret contacts between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which the Saudis have denied.

In the wake of the Abraham Accords, it has been widely speculated that Saudi Arabia would join the UAE and Bahrain and normalize ties with Israel.

Saudi officials have repeatedly stressed that while the country backs full normalization with Israel, a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority that results in a Palestinian state must come first.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly held a secret meeting in November in which they discussed the possibility of normalizing relations between their two countries.

Subsequent reports said the Crown Prince pulled back from a normalization deal with Israel largely because of the US election result.