In July, Saudi Arabia announced that its airspace would be open to all commercial airliners, in a nod to Israel, which was believed to be the only country barred from flying over the Gulf kingdom. The US and Israel characterized the move as a step toward normalization between Riyadh and Jerusalem, though Saudi Arabia sought to downplay the gesture, saying it was not a precursor to any additional moves so long as there is no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While Saudi overflights were long sought by US and Israeli officials, the move ended up being largely symbolic, as flights to Asian countries like India and China would still require a similar authorization from Oman.
One Middle East diplomat said the Biden administration overlooked this detail in its campaign to coax Riyadh into opening its airspace to Israeli flights.
As a result, Israeli airliners have still been forced to fly south through Africa or north through Russia in order to get to the Far East, adding several hours to those flights. Non-Israeli airliners have been able to take shorter flights over Saudi Arabia though, even if they’re heading to or from the Jewish state. READ MORE
