1st Saudi envoy to the Palestinians in West Bank, Israeli minister in Riyadh amid normalization push

By JULIA FRANKEL and ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s newly appointed envoy to the Palestinian Authority has presented his credentials to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It happened on his first visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a trip linked to American efforts to normalize ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel. The trip by nonresident Saudi ambassador Nayef al-Sudairi came just as Israel’s tourism minister became the first senior Israeli official to make a public visit to Saudi Arabia. The visit by al-Sudairi to Ramallah is widely seen as an attempt by the kingdom to address a key sticking point in the Saudi-Israeli normalization deal. It’s the first such visit by a Saudi delegation to the West Bank since 1967.