Saudi Arabia has entered into an agreement with the United Arab Emirates and Israel, allowing all flights to pass through its airspace, partly due to the efforts of the US government.
According to Axios, Saudi Arabia has entered into an agreement with the United Arab Emirates and Israel, allowing all flights to pass through its airspace, partly due to the efforts of the US government.
The agreement allows for flights to and from Israel and the UAE, exclusively, and not to third-party destinations. However, this is considered to be an incredible accomplishment, as previous US administrations had tried multiple times and always failed to gain permission from the Saudi government.
This represents a significant hurdle that has been overcome between the three nations that have been often hostile to one another, and an encouraging series of steps towards peace and stability in the region.
The first successful flight under these terms was two days ago, and the return flight was yesterday. Today, the historic agreement comes into full effect for all flights.
This deal comes on the heels of another historically significant agreement between Israel and the UAE, and is in part sparked by the newly normalized relations between those two countries. Since commercial air traffic is now open between the two nations, the next logical step was to negotiate the most efficient route, over Saudi airspace.
It is said that UAE delegates have been negotiating this deal with the Saudis for the past couple of weeks, as well as US officials Jared Kushnker, Brain Hook, Adam Boehler and Avi Berkowitz among others.
Israels’ prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented “these are the fruits of peace,” and stated that he expected more good news in the near future.
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