Ankara:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Saudi Arabia for its hospitality to Israeli passengers after their plane made an emergency landing in the kingdom on Tuesday.
A flight from Seychelles to Israel had to land in Jeddah late on Monday night due to technical problems. About 130 Israelis were on board the plane and they were put up overnight at a hotel in the airport complex.
A replacement plane was dispatched from Dubai to pick up the Israeli passengers who arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
“I greatly appreciate the warm attitude of the Saudi authorities towards the Israeli passengers whose flight was in distress and was forced to make an emergency landing in Jeddah,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
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“I appreciate good neighborliness very much,” he said in reference to Saudi’s treatment of Israeli travelers.
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 Israel ends its decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories.
