Mossad Director David Barnea. Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/Government Press Office.

The head of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad visited Washington in mid-July for talks with the Biden administration about a potential diplomatic normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

As reported by Axios on Monday, Mossad Director David Barnea met with officials from the White House, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and the US Central Intelligence Agency to discuss the prospective Saudi-Israel deal.

While the Mossad has been tasked since its inception with carrying out espionage in Arab countries, in recent years it has also increasingly been the preferred tool of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for diplomatic outreach to countries that don’t officially recognize the Jewish state.

Barnea’s predecessor, Yossi Cohen, was a key intermediary between Israel and the Arab states in the years leading up to the 2020 Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco. According to Israeli and US media reports, Cohen likewise accompanied Netanyahu on a secret 2020 visit to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister denied those reports, and the leaders of the two countries have to-date never met publicly.

The Barnea visit with US officials comes amid an increased tempo of high-level US diplomatic engagement with Saudi Arabia. Following Barnea’s visit, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan traveled to Riyadh to meet with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on 27 July. The readout of that meeting did not explicitly mention Israel, saying only that the two sides had discussed “initiatives to advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous, and stable Middle East region interconnected with the world.”

US officials including Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk have held meetings in Saudi Arabia with the Crown Prince on a nearly monthly basis so far in 2023 to discuss regional issues like the war in Yemen and Iran, but also a potential Saudi recognition of Israel. 

In June, Blinken told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that the Biden administration was pursuing a normalization deal, but tempered expectations that it might be imminent.

“The United States has a real national security interest in promoting normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” Blinken said. “We believe that we can and indeed we must play an integral role in advancing it. Now, there are no illusions that this can be done quickly or easily. But we remain committed to working toward that outcome.”

President Joe Biden in an interview with CNN on 9 July mentioned potential Saudi demands for a US security guarantee and backing for a Saudi civilian nuclear program as being “a little way off” in terms of what the US was willing to provide to the Saudis to secure a deal.

Israel’s National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi echoed that sentiment in an interview on Monday.

“I can identify with what the United States president said in an interview a few days ago, where he said that the road is still long but that he thinks there will be a possibility of progress,” Hanegbi said, adding that Israel is not involved in the U.S.-Saudi discussions.