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Saudi Arabia agreed to allow Israeli airliners intersect its airspace en route to the United Arab Emirates following conversations between Saudi officials and White House senior counsel Jared Kushner.
Kushner and Middle East representatives Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook suggested the matter quickly after they landed in Saudi Arabia for consultations. “We were capable of reconciling the matter,” an official from the government of United States President Donald Trump said on Monday.
The pact was hammered out just moments before Israel’s prime commercial flight to the UAE was organised on Tuesday daylight. The Israir flight was at jeopardy of being eliminated with no overflight approval.
The nonstop flights are an offshoot of normalisation agreements Israel entered this year with the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.
The UAE has previously obtained profits from normalisation, including the White House pushing forth with arms deals, including an advanced fighter jet, to the Gulf nation.
“This should settle any concerns that should happen with Israeli carriers carrying people from Israel to the UAE and back and to Bahrain,” the White House official.
Kushner and his unit were to join the emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the emir of Kuwait next this week.
The whole goal of the journey is to try to convince Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations to stop a three-year barrier of Qatar.
Qatar has been below an air, land and sea barrier forced by GCC members Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, and non-GCC member Egypt, since June 2017.
They split ties with Doha later declaring it encouraged “terrorism”.
Qatar has vehemently denied the accusations, stating there was “no logical justification” for splitting relationships.