The Biden administration is pressing ahead with a concerted effort to strike a “grand bargain” in the Middle East that includes normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, calculating that the U.S. could reap big rewards if it can overcome steep obstacles.

President Joe Biden’s aides have made this diplomatic push a foreign policy priority despite varying degrees of skepticism by experts on whether the timing, conditions and current regional leadership are right for a mega-deal that could reshape the geopolitics of the Middle East.

For months, Saudi Arabia and Israel – with the United States – have been discussing an agreement to normalise relations.

The US has made it clear that official relations between its two allies in the Middle East is a top priority, with top diplomat Antony Blinken declaring it a “national security interest“.

This comes amid a regional realignment after Iran and Saudi Arabia re-established diplomatic ties after years of animosity.

President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to finalize a “complicated” agreement to establish diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel and shore up U.S. security ties with the Gulf Arab state as a hedge against China's encroachment in the Middle East.

“It’s complicated, and to land all of these different pieces, it takes a tremendous amount of work,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday during an MSNBC broadcast. “We’re in the middle of it. It’s still a challenge.”