USA: Saudi Arabia and Israel have not yet agreed on a plan for getting back to normal.

  The US has played down rumors about a possible deal to improve ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel by saying that more talks are needed for such a deal to happen. John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House, said on Wednesday that the two sides still haven't agreed on a plan for how to talk. He also said, "There is still a lot to talk about here." The Wall Street Journal had reported earlier in the day, citing US officials, that Washington and Riyadh had agreed on a general draft of a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Kirby's comments came soon after that report. Kirby said, "I think, to be blunt, that the coverage has made some people think that the talks are further along and closer to a sense of certainty than they really are."

"There are no agreed-upon negotiations, and there is no agreed-upon framework to codify normalization or any other security concerns that we and our friends in the region have," he said. But Kirby said that US President Joe Biden's government was committed to keeping talks going and trying to move things along. Biden said on July 28 that a deal to improve relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia may be close after National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Saudi officials in Jeddah. Sullivan had been in Jeddah to talk with Saudi officials. In order to reach a deal with Israel, Riyadh openly asked Tel Aviv to first put into action the so-called Arab Peace Initiative from 2002 and create a Palestinian state.

But members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right Israeli government say they won't make any concessions to the Palestinians as part of a possible deal to improve relations with Saudi Arabia. US officials say that the Saudis are quietly asking the US to protect the kingdom if it is attacked and to give them access to both civilian nuclear technology and more advanced US weapons systems. Washington wants to add Saudi Arabia to the list of Arab countries that have signed the Abraham Accords. This comes at a very important time, as Biden is running for re-election and the US government is working to improve the kingdom's ties with Iran and Syria.