Prospects of Saudi ties to Israel elusive as Trump seeks $1 trillion bonanza

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
When U.S
President Donald Trump lands in Riyadh on Tuesday, he will be greeted with opulent ceremonies, gilded palaces and the prospect of $1
trillion in investments
But, the raging war in Gaza has denied him one goal he has long craved: Saudi-Israel normalization.Behind the scenes, U.S
officials are quietly pressing Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza - one of Saudi Arabia's preconditions for any restart of
normalization talks, said two Persian Gulf sources close to official circles and a U.S
official, Reuters reported.Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff told an audience at the Israeli embassy in Washington this week that he
imminently expected progress on expanding the Abraham Accords, a set of deals brokered by Trump in his first term under which certain Arab
He is expected to accompany Trump on his visit to the Middle East.However, opposition by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a
permanent stop to the war or to the creation of a Palestinian state make progress on similar talks with Riyadh unlikely, two of the sources
said.
This article first appeared/also appeared in Tehran Times