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

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

64% : 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 Arab states including the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco recognised Israel.
62% : He is expected to accompany Trump on his visit to the Middle East.
50% : Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies now plan to urge Trump to ease U.S. regulations that have increasingly deterred foreign investment, particularly in sectors deemed part of America´s "critical national infrastructure," five industry sources said.
47% : Trump conspicuously has not announced a visit to Israel as part of his tour of the region.
44% : "Normalizing ties with Israel is a much heavier lift than rolling out the red carpet for President Trump and announcing investment deals," he said.
44% : A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on any understanding reached ahead of the trip, saying Trump "will look to strengthen ties between the United States and our Arab Gulf partners during the visits.
44% : Trump commands deep trust from the Saudi leadership, rooted in the close ties during his first term - a period defined by large arms deals and steadfast U.S. backing for Bin Salman, even as global outrage erupted over the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul.
41% : The goal, the sources told Reuters, is to evade diplomatic landmines and perhaps, one said, to win concessions from Trump on the Gaza war and its aftermath.
38% : Underscoring the high-stakes diplomacy underway, Trump met privately with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Thursday to discuss the war and nuclear talks with Iran, Axios reported.
34% : Frustrated by the impact of Gaza's prolonged crisis on normalization efforts, Trump could use his visit to unveil a U.S. framework to end the 18-month war, the two Gulf sources said.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.