(JNS) A Saudi delegation will meet with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah this week amid an ongoing US-led diplomatic effort to normalize relations between Riyadh and Israel.

The delegation will be headed by Saudi Ambassador to Jordan Nayef al-Sudairi, Riyadh’s first-ever non-resident envoy to the PA and consul general to Jerusalem.

Al-Sudairi, a cousin of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and considered close to the royal family, presented his credentials to Abbas’s diplomatic adviser Majdi al-Khalidi during a meeting in Amman, Jordan, in August.

Because Saudi Arabia does not have a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, the appointment did not require approval from Israel, which considers the city its capital.

The Saudis have proposed resuming financial assistance to the West Bank, in what has been construed as a sign the kingdom is paving the way to establishing diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

Saudi Arabia contributed billions to Palestinian causes until cutting off funding in 2016 over allegations of PA corruption dropping their annual contribution from $174 million a year in 2019 to zero in 2021.

Palestinian leaders are reportedly debating whether to protest a prospective Saudi-Israel deal, in a similar move that the PA took in 2020 when the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords, describing the agreement as “a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords would constitute a “quantum leap.”

In an address to the UN on Friday, Netanyahu said that peace with the Muslim nation would have far-reaching implications, including encouraging other Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel.

He called the Abraham Accords “a pivot of history,” and said the whole world is reaping their benefits. “All these are tremendous blessings."