US, Saudi Arabia close to finalizing draft security treaty

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - Monitoring: The Biden administration is close to finalizing a treaty with Saudi Arabia that would commit the US to help defend the Arab nation as part of a deal aimed at encouraging normalization of ties between Riyadh and the Israeli regime, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing US and Saudi officials.
The possible deal, widely telegraphed by US and other officials for weeks, is part of a wider package that would include a US-Saudi civil nuclear pact, steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state and an end to the war in Gaza, where months of ceasefire efforts have failed to bring peace.
Approval of the treaty, which the WSJ said would be known as the Strategic Alliance Agreement, would require a two-thirds majority vote in the US Senate, a threshold that would be difficult to achieve unless the treaty were tied to Israeli-Saudi normalization./Mehr