Mossad head Dovid Barnea secretly visited Washington almost two weeks ago for talks with senior US officials about the Biden administration’s efforts to forge a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal, Axios reported on Monday.

However, according to the report, which was based on two US sources, the normalization issue is only one part of possible US-Saudi agreements, and the Israeli government wanted to discuss other issues that could affect Israeli security, including possible US support for a Saudi civilian nuclear program and US arms sales to the kingdom.

The sources said that Barnea met with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House prior to his trip to Saudi Arabia last week as well as Brett McGurk, the White House Middle East czar, and Amos Hochstein, Biden’s senior adviser for energy and infrastructure.

McGurk and Hochstein accompanied Sullivan on his trip to Saudi Arabia, where they met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior Saudi officials.

Barnea also met with CIA Director Bill Burns to discuss Saudi issues as well as Iran.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)