Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Jake Sullivan and U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, have discussed a "semifinal" bilateral deal that would beef up security ties.
The meeting between Crown Prince Mohammed and Sullivan took place in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
Sullivan arrived in Israel later on Sunday for talks about the war in Gaza.
"The semifinal version of the draft strategic agreements between the Kingdom and the United States of America, which are almost being finalized ... were discussed," SPA said.
The meeting also covered "what is being worked on between the two sides on the Palestinian issue to find a credible path towards a two-state solution," as well as attempts to stop the war in Gaza and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid there.
The Biden administration has aggressively pursued a so-called mega-deal in which Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, would recognize Israel for the first time in exchange for benefits from Washington including a defense pact and assistance with a civilian nuclear program with uranium enrichment capacity.
Last September, before the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that sparked Israel's brutal war on Gaza, Prince Mohammed said in an interview with the U.S. network Fox News that "every day we get closer" to a deal to normalize ties.
But those efforts have been severely damaged by the more than seven months of war in Gaza and the rising civilian toll there.
Since the outbreak of the war, Saudi officials have said that relations with Israel are impossible without steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long opposed.
It is unclear whether Riyadh and Washington will move forward with their agreements, as Saudi Arabia and Israel have not reached a normalization agreement, according to analysts.
High-level talks about what Saudi Arabia wants from the United States have continued.
During U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's last visit to Riyadh in April, he and his Saudi counterpart said that a final agreement on the U.S.-Saudi component of the deal was close.
Yet Sullivan told a Financial Times conference in London this month that any deal would need to include the normalization component.
Sunday's statement from Saudi Arabia "seems to be implying that negotiations, even on the bilateral side of this deal, are still ongoing," said Anna Jacobs, senior Gulf analyst for the International Crisis Group.
"This might suggest that the Saudis are still trying to find a way to secure a smaller bilateral deal with the U.S. that would exclude normalization with Israel at this stage, despite Sullivan himself saying there would be no deal without Israel."
