Saudi authorities in recent days published a new map of the kingdom and the region, in which Israel is still identified as “Palestine”, despite reports of normalization talks between the two countries, Kan 11 News reported on Friday.
A notable change in the new map is that the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir are officially included within the borders of Saudi Arabia.
Egypt agreed to transfer sovereignty over the two islands to Saudi Arabia back in 2016. During US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia last year, he announced a deal concerning the removal of multinational forces from Sanafir and Tiran. That agreement was viewed as a significant step on the path towards normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
A recent report indicated that the United States and Saudi Arabia have agreed on the broad outlines of a deal for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel in exchange for concessions to the Palestinian Arabs.
As part of the process, The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia is offering to resume financial support to the Palestinian Authority which it had frozen in 2021.
Last Thursday, however, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that while US, Israeli and Saudi leaders have put many of the elements of a pathway to normalization on the table, there is still much work to do.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)