now to a story with conflicting reports
saudi authorities are denying reports in
israeli media that prime minister
benjamin netanyahu
secretly flew to saudi arabia on sunday
in what would be the first trip by an
israeli premier to the kingdom
he's reported to have met crown prince
mohammed bin salman
and the u.s secretary of state mike
pompeo while america's top diplomat
who's on a farewell tour of the region
has previously helped broker historic
deals to normalize ties with two
saudi allies in the gulf the united arab
emirates and bahrain
well saudi leaders have so far resisted
calls to normalize relations with israel
and have no formal diplomatic relations
with the country
so private meeting between the saudi and
israeli leaders is of major significance
publicly however saudi arabia has said
it would stick
to the decades-old arab league position
of not having ties with israel
until the jewish state's conflict with
the palestinians is resolved
well the saudi government have denied
the media reports with the foreign
minister prince faisal bin farhan
tweeting that no such meeting took place
well speaking to me from riyadh our
chief international correspondent lee
ducette explained
where the story was first reported
it's another middle east mystery it has
to be said
the story first broke about an aviation
tracking data where a plane spotter
noticed uh what was described as an
extremely rare
direct flight from the israeli city of
tel aviv
to the futuristic city of neon
on the northern coast of saudi arabia
private jet
it was said to be have been a private
jet that the israeli prime minister
benjamin netanyahu has used uh on other
trips uh and specifically to visit
for example the russian uh leader
vladimir putin
so then the rumors started and then this
morning
israeli uh journalists started saying
with off-the-record sources that this
meeting of
very historic highly significant deeply
sensitive meeting
between the israeli prime minister and
the head of the
israeli intelligence mossad with the
crown prince of saudi arabia
mohammed bin salman but in the last few
hours as you just said there's been a
tweet from
the saudi foreign minister prince faisal
bin farhan he said
regarding these press reports of a
meeting that there
there was no such meeting it never
occurred he said
that there were only american and saudi
officials in the room
off the record senior saudi officials
are
also denying that any meeting took place
that there were any israelis at that
meeting
which involved was a last stop for the
u.s secretary of state mike
pompeo on a 10-day seven nation tour so
someone isn't telling the truth when
prime minister
benjamin netanyahu was asked about it he
just talked about
broadening the circle of peace he
wouldn't comment but one of
the members of his cabinet the education
minister
told an israeli media earlier in the day
it was
an amazing achievement