US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth canceled his scheduled visit to Israel next week, prior to President Donald Trump's visit to the region, a source familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post.
This would have been Hegseth's first trip to Israel since he began his role as defense secretary.
He was scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, according to a Saturday Axios report.
Hegseth will still travel with Trump to Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
This comes following reports that Trump is no longer demanding Saudi Arabia normalize ties with Israel as a condition for progress on civil nuclear cooperation talks.
Trump and Saudi Arabia in talks
Senior Biden administration officials consistently told the Saudis during months of dialogue about normalization with Israel that they could have a civilian nuclear program—but only if a peace agreement with Israel was in place.
Trump is expected to arrive in Riyadh next week, where he is set to sign a multi-billion-dollar arms deal. This, too, was a condition previously set by the Biden administration to advance normalization.
Jerusalem Post Staff and Reuters contributed to this report.