Israel–Saudi Arabia relations

The State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have never had formal diplomatic relations. In 1947, Saudi Arabia voted against the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, and currently does not recognize Israeli sovereignty. In 2024, Saudi Arabia confirmed that it would not recognize Israel without a Palestinian state and strongly condemned the “crimes of the Israeli occupation” against the Palestinian people, in a statement by prince Mohammed bin Salman “The Kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the Kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that”.

Unofficial Bilateral negotiations on Israeli–Saudi normalization began in 2023, with the United States serving as the mediator. These talks were disrupted by the war in Gaza but Mohammed bin Salman appreciates Israel's economic success which he seeks to replicate in Saudi Arabia. There are already extensive commercial and business ties between the two countries.

During the main phase of the Arab–Israeli conflict, Saudi Arabia supported the Arab League against Israel. Likewise, the official Saudi policy towards the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been supportive of the Palestinian Arabs. However, reports have surfaced in recent years indicating extensive behind-the-scenes cooperation in the areas of diplomacy, intelligence, and security. Warming relations between the two sides are a direct result of the unofficial Arab–Israeli alliance, which came to fruition in light of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict and the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict. At the same time, the Saudi relationship with the Palestinian National Authority has been deteriorating.