Israeli PM held secret talks in Saudi with Pompeo, crown prince: media

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held secret talks in Saudi Arabia Sunday with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, media said, in the first reported trip by an Israeli premier to the kingdom.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in Israel last week, was also at the reported talks, a diplomatic correspondent at Israeli public broadcaster Kan said on Monday.

The broadcaster cited unnamed Israeli officials as saying that Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad spy agency, Yossi Cohen, "flew yesterday to Saudi Arabia and met Pompeo and MBS in the city of Neom", referring to the often used initials of Prince Mohammed.

The reported meeting comes weeks after Israel agreed historic US-brokered deals to normalise ties with two Saudi allies in the Gulf, the UAE and Bahrain, pacts known as the Abraham Accords.

Multiple other Israeli media outlets reported on a Netanyahu trip to Saudi Arabia, including prominent diplomatic correspondent Barak Ravid of Walla News and Axios, who reported Netanyahu and Cohen flew on a plane belonging to Israeli businessman Udi Angel.

Ravid also cited flight tracker data that apparently showed Angel's plane leaving Israel at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Sunday, heading to Neom on the Red Sea and returning to Israel five hours later.

(Source: BSS)