Biden asserts that the historic accord with Saudi Arabia was one of the reasons Hamas attacked Israel

President Joe Biden said on Friday that he believed one of the reasons Hamas attacked Israel was to prevent Israel from normalizing ties with Saudi Arabia.

At a fundraiser, Biden said, “One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel… they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis.” According to the US president, Hamas terrorists carried out a devastating attack on October 7 because, “Guess what? The Saudis wanted to officially recognize Israel, and they were getting close.

A maritime corridor partnership between Jerusalem and Riyadh was announced during the Group of 20 summit in India in September as part of Biden’s efforts to bring the two nations closer together.

In a September meeting outside the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Biden, “I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

In any larger deal with Israel, the Saudis have insisted on the preservation and expansion of rights for Palestinian interests. An agreement would have been a diplomatic achievement that may have allowed other Arab and Muslim-majority countries, which have mostly opposed Israel since its inception 75 years ago in land where Palestinians have long lived, to recognize Israel more widely.

However, discussions were cut short when Hamas terrorists invaded surrounding Israeli communities from the blockaded Gaza Strip, where Palestinians reside.

The incident on October 7 fell on a significant Jewish holiday. As a result, Israel launched retaliatory bombings, which put the world on edge and caused 1,400 Israelis and 4,137 Palestinians to die. The US is now attempting to prevent the conflict from spreading. After the first attack, Hamas also took more than 200 captives.