Israeli Commercial Aircraft Allowed To Pass Through Saudi Arabia

JAKARTA - Saudi Arabia has agreed to allow Israeli airlines to cross its airspace onto the United Arab Emirates (UAE) route following talks between Saudi officials and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, according to a senior Trump administration official.

Reported by Antara, Tuesday, December 1, Kushner and Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook discussed the issue when they arrived in Saudi Arabia. "We are able to resolve the issue," he told Reuters.

The deal was passed just hours before Israel's first commercial aircraft bound for the UAE was planned for Tuesday morning. Israeli airline flights risk being canceled without a flight agreement.

The direct flights are part of this year's Israeli normalization deals with the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.

"It must address any issues that should arise with Israeli operators transporting people from Israel to the UAE and back and towards Bahrain," he said.

Kushner and his entourage will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as well as the Kuwaiti emir this weekend.

One of the main aims of the trip is to try to persuade the Gulf Cooperation Council countries to end the three-year blockade on Qatar.