Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi received today Monday the king of Jordan and the Palestinian president in the northern Egyptian city of El Alamein, the Egyptian presidency announced, amid growing speculation about a possible normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Sisi first met separately with King Abdullah II of Jordan before leading a tripartite meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Egyptian presidency said in two separate press releases.

The three leaders referred to “the development of the Palestinian issue”, they asked ending the Israeli occupation” and reiterated their support for a “two-state solution” with East Jerusalem as the capital of a “sovereign and independent Palestinian state”.

Although the Egyptian presidency did not mention normalization, a Palestinian source familiar with the matter told AFP that the summit “aims to discuss US efforts to achieve normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel and claims of the Palestinian Authority in the context of signing such an agreement”.

Egypt and Jordan, the first Arab countries to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and 1994 respectively, are Riyadh’s major regional allies.

Saudi Arabia it does not recognize Israel and did not join the 2020 Abraham Accords — negotiated by Washington — which allowed the Israeli state to normalize relations primarily with the kingdom’s two neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Riyadh on Saturday appointed an ambassador to the Palestinian Territories – who will not reside there and will also be consul general in Jerusalem. Until today, the affairs of the Palestinian Territories were managed by the Saudi Arabian embassy in Amman, Jordan.

An appointment seen as a “public message of support” for the Palestinian Authority, according to experts, comes days after Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen declared that “peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia is a matter of time”.

Riyadh has repeatedly said it is sticking to the Arab League’s position, a decades-old position of not establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel until the conflict with the Palestinians is resolved.

Egypt, its diplomacy and especially its intelligence services are often called upon to intervene in the Palestinian issue: the country neighbors the Gaza Strip, yet receives the heads of Israeli governments and the leaders of various Palestinian parties.