Claim: Israel no longer wishes to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia after the kingdom signed a defense pact with Pakistan.
Fact: Israel has made no official statement or response to the announcement of the pact and has not withdrawn its desire for recognition by The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
On 21 September 2025, a user on X (formerly Twitter) posted (archive), ‘Just IN:— “Israel no longer wants to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia after its defence pact with Pakistan.” – Israeli newspaper cites Israeli PM.’
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search to find any credible reports but found no articles that had reported the claim. As the post specifically stated that Israeli news outlets had reported this news, we searched the top outlets in Israel, including The Times of Israel, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, i24News, and Channel 12 News. However, none of these publications reported or cited the Israeli PM as saying that Israel had changed its position on normalising ties with Saudi Arabia.
The claim further stated that Israeli news outlets were citing Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. Thus, Soch Fact Check checked the Prime Minister’s X account and his official website for any press releases that supported this claim but failed to find any statements pertaining to the claim or even the Pakistan-Saudi defense pact.
Currently, Israel has not made any comments regarding the pact and has remained vague in their acknowledgement of it. According to a report by The Times of Israel, published a day after the defense pact was announced, “Israel did not immediately acknowledge the pact, which was the first firm defense decision made by a Gulf Arab country since the Qatar attack last week.” Later, on 20 September, the publication once again noted that, “Israel has not commented on the two nations’ defense pact.”
Notably, Israel was reported to have not made any comments on the defense pact on 20 September. As the claim was posted on 21 September, Soch Fact Check checked for any official statements made by the Prime Minister of Israel on 20 or 21 September regarding the issue but failed to find any. According to the Prime Minister’s official page, Netanyahu only made two notable statements on 21 September, one regarding his response to the recognition of a Palestinian state and another was regarding the remarks made at the opening of a government meeting, but neither of these made any mention of Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the X post received over 100,000 views.
Conclusion: Israel has not changed its position on gaining recognition from and normalising ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in light of the recent defense pact signed between the kingdom and Pakistan.
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