Israel to build $27bn rail expansion, eyes future link to Saudi Arabia
Business
The announcement followed a trip by top US officials to Riyadh
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will build a 100 billion shekels ($27bn) rail expansion that will connect its outlying areas to metropolitan Tel Aviv and, in the future, could provide overland links to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
The announcement followed a trip by top US officials to Saudi Arabia last week to advance a possible forging of formal relations between the Muslim powerhouse and Israel.
Opening the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Netanyahu appeared to sidestep the constitutional crisis that has roiled the country for seven months, denting its economy and shaking Western allies' confidence in its democratic health.
Instead, he promoted infrastructure initiatives including the "One Israel Project", which he described as designed to reduce travel time by train to the country's business and government centres to two hours or less.
"I would like to add that in the future we will also be able to transport cargo by rail from Eilat to our Mediterranean, and will also be able to link Israel by train to Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula," he said in televised remarks. "On this, too, we are working."
RAPPROCHEMENT MAYBE UNDER WAY
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden said a deal may be on the way with Saudi Arabia after talks that his national security adviser had with Saudi officials in Jeddah aimed at reaching a normalization in relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
"There’s a rapprochement maybe under way," Biden told contributors to his 2024 re-election campaign at an event in Freeport, Maine.
Biden did not give details about the possible deal.
US officials have sought for months to reach what would be a historic agreement between the long-time adversaries but the Saudis have been resistant.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, in a piece published on Thursday, said Biden was considering whether to pursue a US-Saudi mutual security pact that would involve Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, one of Biden's most trusted aides, was in Jeddah this week with Middle East envoy Brett McGurk discussing the possibility of a normalization deal, White House officials said.
US officials see a potential deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia as possible after the administration of former President Donald Trump reached similar agreements between Israel and Morocco, Sudan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
