Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) spoke on the phone twice in recent weeks, with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani facilitating the calls, a foreign diplomatic source said on Monday.

Netanyahu and MBS spoke before and after last week’s Arab League meeting to discuss the possibility of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

No progress was made in the conversations and MBS rejected a request from Netanyahu to meet.

[Needless to say, this is a diplomatic earthquake in the region. For most of its existence, the Saudis have refused to officially recognize Israel’s existence. Direct talks between two heads of government/state go beyond recognition, which the Saudis have officially withheld but tacitly have allowed. The Abraham Accords would not have taken place without Saudi Arabia’s quiet blessings, and everyone knows it. It speaks to normalization in and of itself. One has to wonder how MBS will fit that into his recent attempts to normalize relations with Iran, but still, this is big news. — Ed]