RIYADH (Middle East Eye) – The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and the occupying regime of Israel last week participated in a virtual meeting hosted by the U.S. State Department.
The Zionist regime’s foreign minister Yair Lapid and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan took part in the call held by top diplomats aimed at boosting cooperation to combat the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to The Times of Israel and CNN, which both cited unnamed officials.
The meeting, which took place on 21 December, was mentioned by both the Zionist regime and the United States, which issued statements without referring to bin Farhan’s participation.
The State Department said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “met virtually with several foreign ministers and representatives of regional organizations”, but did not mention which countries he met with.
However, China’s ambassador to the U.S., Qin Gang, posted a screenshot of the virtual meeting on Twitter, which showed bin Farhan and Lapid in attendance, along with a number of other diplomats.
The occupying regime and Saudi Arabia do not have formal diplomatic relations, with Riyadh saying it would not normalize relations with Tel Aviv unless a Palestinian state is established.
However, the Saudi foreign minister has previously said that a normalization deal with the Zionist regime would be “extremely helpful” and bring “tremendous benefits” to the Middle East.
The occupying regime views Saudi Arabia as part of a moderate axis of Arab countries with which it seeks cooperation.