US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner said Saudi Arabia agreed to open its airspace, not just to flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, but to all eastward travel.
Kushner briefed the press on Wednesday ahead of the September 15 signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords between the Zionist entity and the UAE.
Addressing the decision of Saudi Arabia to open its airspace, Kushner said: “That will save people a lot of time and knock down a barrier that’s been up for 72 years.”
“Countries are starting to let go of old conflicts and move in the direction of peace,” he said, adding that following Saudi Arabia, Bahrain took the same step.
”All this will cut down a lot of the travel time between different countries that [will] allow people from Saudi to go to Europe faster if they fly over Israel, and people [traveling] from Israel to Asia and Asia to Israel to have much more connectivity.”
“It’s a tremendous barrier that’s been taken away,” he said. “You’re seeing everyday new announcements of airlines that are looking to fly from Israel to different Arab cities that traditionally they weren’t allowed to go to and back. You have a lot of excitement building in the Arab and Muslim world, with people wanting to go to Israel to visit the tourist sites and to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque. You’re seeing kosher restaurants opening up now in Dubai.”
“Every day, we’re seeing new announcements, which is showing the progress that this peace is bringing to the Middle East,” Kushner said.
Kushner added that the US administration plans to invite representatives from both parties to attend the event.
“This is something that should be bipartisan. We will invite Democrats and Republicans to be here. This has been praised by people on both sides of the aisle – and hopefully, this is one issue that can stay out of politics,” he said.
Source: Israeli media
