American efforts to persuade more Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel before the November election are focused on Sudan, where negotiations have stalled over the amount of a financial incentive promised to Sudan in exchange for recognizing Israel, officials said Saturday.
But the campaign’s most important target, Saudi Arabia, they said, is unlikely to recognize Israel this year.
President Trump has said that “at least five or six countries” are poised to follow the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in normalizing relations with Israel, one of the biggest foreign policy achievements of his administration. He said one could be Saudi Arabia, a breakthrough that would carry great weight in the Arab world.
But two high-ranking Israeli officials with knowledge of the talks said that while Saudi officials had been involved in negotiations to secure the recognition of Israel by the U.A.E. and Bahrain, they had no plans to do so themselves in the near future.
