JERUSALEM — Amid the scrutiny of President Biden’s tense meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on Friday, there was less fanfare for a curt late-night announcement by the White House about the upcoming removal of U.S. peacekeepers from a pair of obscure Saudi islands in the Red Sea.
The news was nevertheless significant: It was the latest sign of warming ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, two regional powers that have no formal diplomatic relations.
In order for the peacekeepers to leave, Israel had to give its blessing. The islands were transferred to Saudi Arabian control by Egypt in 2017, and the security arrangements on the islands are still affected by peace agreements sealed four decades ago between Egypt and Israel.
In parallel with the new understandings over the islands, the United States said in an earlier announcement that Saudi Arabia would allow direct civilian flights between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a decision that will let Arab citizens of Israel travel directly to Mecca for pilgrimages.
The announcements highlighted how Israel, after years of regional isolation, is rapidly gaining acceptance among some Arab leaders as shared Israeli-Arab fears of a nuclear Iran supersede Arab solidarity with the Palestinians. The increasingly open signs of cooperation follow years of clandestine security coordination between the Saudis and Israelis, who have a shared interest in joining forces against their mutual enemy, Iran.
The agreement, a small but long-awaited step, also represents an achievement for the Biden administration. It builds on the Abraham Accords, the normalization deals between Israel and three other Arab states — the United Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco — that were facilitated by the Trump administration.
The Red Sea islands at the center of the new deal, Tiran and Sanafir, have long been strategically important for Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia despite being barren and uninhabited. They command the narrow Straits of Tiran, the only sea route to the southern Israeli port city of Eilat.
They originally belonged to Saudi Arabia, which handed control of the islands to Egypt in a 1950 treaty when the Arab allies were focused on choking off trade to the newly formed state of Israel. With its far stronger military and history of regional dominance, Egypt was better placed at the time to hold the Straits of Tiran against the Israelis.
Israel took control of the islands after the 1967 Middle East war, which started in part over Egypt’s decision to close the Straits to Israel-bound trade and to hamper Israeli military movements in the Red Sea. The islands returned to Egyptian control in 1982 after the two countries signed a peace treaty, leaving a small, international force of soldiers, usually American, stationed on Tiran to monitor the agreement.
In 2017, Egypt handed the islands back to Saudi Arabia, which hoped to ultimately remove the peacekeepers.
Under the arrangement announced by the White House on Friday, Israel has given its blessing to the peacekeepers’ removal by the end of the year. In parallel, the United States said that Saudi Arabia had agreed to uphold “all existing commitments and procedures in the area,” which include Israeli shipping access through the straits.
The agreement “fully took into consideration the interests of all parties, including Israel,” the White House said in a statement, and the island will now be used “for tourism, development and peaceful pursuits.”
Isabel Kershner and Patrick Kingsley reported from Jerusalem, and Vivian Yee from Cairo.
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