Palestinian statehood
If Trump seeks to expand his own legacy of normalizing Arab ties with Israel, to secure the deal with Riyadh that has eluded the current administration, Saudi observers say the incoming U.S. leader will need to leverage his close ties with Israel in order to advance the cause of Palestinian statehood.

"There is one crucial thing the Trump administration must understand well:
It is wishful thinking on their part to assume that Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords for free," Salman al-Ansari, a prominent Saudi political analyst, told Newsweek.

"A Palestinian state is a must and an absolute prerequisite for normalization with Israel."

With less than two months before Trump is set to retake U.S. leadership, Ansari said it's still "too early to tell" precisely how Trump planned to handle this issue. But he saw "a mixture of optimism and pessimism" from the perspective of Saudi Arabia.

"The optimism comes from the fact that Mr. Trump has a positive precedent with us and worked hard to deepen the Saudi-U.S. economic partnership," Ansari said.

"On the other hand, the pessimism may come from his new appointees, especially the U.S. ambassador to Israel, who seems to be on the far right with regard to supporting Israel, disregarding basic humanitarian and international laws."