Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Monday denied reports that a meeting took place between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli officials on Sunday.

"I have seen press reports about a purported meeting between HRH the Crown Prince and Israeli officials during the recent visit by @SecPompeo. No such meeting occurred. The only officials present were American and Saudi," Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud tweeted.

The remarks came just hours after Israeli Education Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had held a meeting in Saudi Arabia, calling it an "amazing achievement."

"The very fact the meeting happened, and was outed publicly, even if half-officially right now, is a matter of great importance," the education minister told Army Radio when asked about Sunday's visit, in which Israeli media said Netanyahu met the Saudi crown prince and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

As U.S. President Donald Trump's term winds down, Pompeo has been trying to coax the Gulf powerhouse to follow its neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in establishing formal relations with Israel.

Earlier media reports, quoting unidentified Israeli officials, said that Netanyahu was joined on his Saudi trip by Mossad director Joseph (Yossi) Cohen, who had spearheaded discreet diplomatic outreach to Gulf Arab states.

Avi Scharf of Israel's Haaretz newspaper published aviation tracking data showing that a business jet had made a brief trip from Tel Aviv to Neom, on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, where bin Salman and Pompeo had a scheduled meeting on Sunday.

Riyadh has so far declined to normalize ties with Israel. But since August it has allowed Israeli airliners to overfly Saudi territory to newly available Gulf destinations and Asia.

Publicly closing ranks with the Saudi crown prince could help the conservative Netanyahu burnish his statesman credentials as he faces domestic challenges, including a trial on corruption charges, which he denies, and a feud with centrist coalition partner Benny Gantz, Israel's defense minister.

Asked on Saturday whether Riyadh had changed its position on Israel, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the kingdom had supported complete normalization of ties "for a long time," but on condition that Israel and the Palestinians reach "a permanent and full peace deal."