The possible deal, widely telegraphed by US and other
officials for weeks, is part of a wider package that would include a US-Saudi
civil nuclear pact, steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state and
an end to the war in Gaza, where months of ceasefire efforts have failed to
bring peace.
Approval of the treaty, which the WSJ said would be known as
the Strategic Alliance Agreement, would require a two-thirds majority vote in
the US Senate, a threshold that would be difficult to achieve unless the treaty
were tied to Israeli-Saudi normalization.
The draft treaty is modeled loosely on Washington's mutual
security pact with Japan, the newspaper cited US and Saudi officials as saying.
In exchange for the US commitment to help defend Saudi
Arabia if it were attacked, the draft treaty would grant Washington access to
Saudi territory and airspace to protect US interests and regional partners, the
newspaper reported.
It is also intended to bind Riyadh closer to Washington by
prohibiting China from building bases in the kingdom or pursuing security
cooperation with Riyadh, the WSJ quoted officials as saying.
The White House, the US State Department and the Saudi
embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
