Saudi Arabia was a kingdom steeped in obscurantism and its cardinal foreign policy was to oppose Israel. This has changed after the entry of crown prince Salman bin Saud as the de-facto ruler of the kingdom.
The change was perceptible when Donald Trump, after his visit to Arabia, was allowed to fly directly to Tel Aviv. It was evident that the Saudi government was going to change its approach to Israel.The Winds Of Change began to blow.
The Times of India has reported that Saudi Arabia has given permission to the national airline of India, Air India to fly directly from New Delhi to Tel-Aviv.
In the process, Saudi airspace has opened for flights to the Jewish nation. This decision was taken on Wednesday and as yet neither the Saudi or Indian government have commented on this decision.
Direct flight
Prime minister Netanyahu has a close friendship with the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. During his last six-day visit to India, the agreement to connect Delhi to Israel by direct flight was taken up by Netanyahu in an address to the Indian chamber of commerce in Mumba. At that time he had hinted that travel time between the two countries must reduce.
Presently the Israeli airline flies from Tel Aviv to Mumbai.The flight takes over seven hours as it has to fly via the Red Sea. The Indian airline will fly direct over Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv from New Delhi and the traveling time will be reduced by over two hours.
There will be a proportional reduction of airfares as well.This news will not be to the liking of the Palestine Arabs who are hell-bent on destroying Israel.
Air India plans to start the flights by March this year. It has set the ball rolling by asking for Permission To Fly through an application to the regulatory authority for civil aviation in India, the DDGCA.
The opening up of the airspace by Saudi Arabia is a historical step and will bring to an end 70 years of a policy to try and isolate Israel by denying any country overflight of Arabian airspace for going to Israel.
Prince Salman
The credit for this decision must go to Salman Bin Saud the crown prince, who is in the seat of power.
He is a pragmatic man who wants to take Saudi Arabia out from archaic age to modern times. The permission to fly over Saudi airspace is part of a decision to recognize the existence of Israel.
The kingdom is facing a resurgent Iran in Yemen and Syria and they could do with some help from Israel. Prince Salman has also cracked down on cronyism, corruption and money laundering by arresting many businessmen and princes. He has allowed women to drive and according to CNN is going to take the kingdom into the modern age with the construction of cinemas and a holiday resort to rival Dubai on the Red Sea coast.
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