— 🇸🇦/🇮🇷 NOTE: Trump’s statement that ‘he thinks’ Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords is likely inaccurate, and just another ‘Trumpism’ – his own opinion, nothing else

King Salman informed Iran in a personal letter to Ayatollah Khamenei that Saudi Arabia will not normalize ties with Israel unless there is a broad recognition of a fully independent Palestinian state, which will not be the case any time soon.

Of course, Iran rejects any normalization with Israel, even in case of a Palestinian state, but this statement from Saudi Arabia was received positively, because it was assumed that they would normalize with Israel regardless of the Palestinian issue, which turned out to be not the case.

Saudi Arabia now has much more to lose than to gain. The U.S. is already going ahead with providing a civilian nuclear program for the Saudis – something that was initially seen as only being possible after normalization. With this, the main incentive for Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel is gone.

Trump often claims things that are simply untrue, like when he claimed that Egypt and Jordan were ‘very positive’ about his proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza, when in reality, it was unanimously rejected and condemned.

@Middle_East_Spectator