Israel’s Netanyahu thanks Saudi Arabia after plane landing in Jeddah

By Abdel Rauf Arnaut

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday thanked Saudi Arabia for hospitality towards Israeli passengers after their plane made an emergency landing in the kingdom.

A plane traveling from Seychelles to Israel was forced to land in Jeddah late Monday due to technical difficulties. Some 130 Israelis were aboard the plane and they were housed overnight in a hotel in the airport complex.

A replacement plane was sent from Dubai to collect the Israeli passengers who arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

"I greatly appreciate the warm attitude of the Saudi authorities to the Israeli passengers whose flight was in distress and was compelled to make an emergency landing in Jeddah," Netanyahu said in a statement.

"I greatly appreciate the good neighborliness," he added, in reference to the Saudi's treatment of the Israeli passengers.

Last year, Saudi authorities allowed Israeli flights to fly over the kingdom’s airspace.

Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and opposes normalization with Tel Aviv until ending the decades-long Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.