United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has signaled to Israel that the Zionist state needs to cancel plans for a ground operation in Rafah and make a hostage release deal with Hamas as soon as possible.

Blinken is of the view that an attack on Rafah will make Israel lose the opportunity to normalize relations with Riyadh, according to a report by The Times of Israel on Thursday, May 2, 2024, citing a number of sources familiar with the matter.

The chances of reaching a normalization deal are getting closer, so a major ground attack on Rafah would probably stall the deal completely, Blinken told Israeli officials during his visit to Israel on May 1, 2024, as part of a series of Middle East visits.

Earlier this week, the media reported that Washington and Riyadh might sign a defense pact in the coming weeks that would, among other things, provide for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will reportedly be offered to end military operations in the Gaza Strip, join the agreement, or abandon it.

In January, the media reported that Saudi Arabia had resumed negotiations with the United States on a defense deal after a three-month hiatus due to recent escalations in the Middle East.
The United States launched the process of normalizing relations between Israel and the Arab world in 2020.

As a result of these efforts, in September 2020, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain signed a series of documents known as the Abrahamic Accords. Morocco also signed it in December of the same year.

In January 2021, Sudan also signed the declarative part of the agreement but did not sign documents related to Israel like other countries due to differences of opinion between Sudan's military and civilian leadership on the matter.

In early August 2023, Washington and Riyadh agreed on the outlines of a deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.