Recently an absurd report surfaced stating that Saudi Arabia has contacts with Israel. Naturally the Kingdom denied the reports. The official Saudi Press Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying, ” the Kingdom has no relations or contacts with Israel of any kind or at any level.”
It was first reported in Britain’s Sunday Times without naming or identifying the source. Such reports on Saudi-Israeli contacts usually emerge once in a while probably to boost readership and increase nose-diving circulations. Ironically, Israel has open diplomatic and economic relations with very few Arab countries, so, why a rumor about a simple contact between Saudi Arabia and Israel makes the headlines? Saudi Arabia doesn’t even share borders with Israel. So, let us talk about the Saudi- Israeli conversation that never took place.
After the British newspaper “broke” the news, various media outlets carried it. The report would have been ignored if it were about a possible Saudi- Israeli contact to resolve the Palestinian issue. Saudi Arabia did its best to resolve the most difficult and complicated political issues in in the world. And Saudi Arabia went as far as drafting peace plans twice. Palestinians rejected the first peace initiative and the second peace initiative was rejected by the Israelis. Both Saudi initiatives, if implemented, would have ended the lingering Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This time the rumor of Saudi-Israeli contact had for the first time had nothing to do with the Palestinians. It had to do with Iran. The United States had given the Iranians a room to breathe. In less than two months the US downgraded its alert level for a possible attack on Iran and has embarked on a path to improve ties with Tehran with less pressure regarding the economic sanctions. In my opinion, this will only help Iran gain time to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
Washington is now getting cozy with Tehran. The Saudis were obviously not comfortable and the Israelis naturally furious. Political analysts used an adage: The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and assumed that there must be some sort of brainstorming going on between the Kingdom and Israel. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states in general are not surprised by the Geneva deal, per se, but did not expect the amount of space Iran was given in return of negligible offers. And this in turn made many Gulf-based analysts say that they don’t have any confidence in the US. And I personally don’t know what the Americans have up their sleeves.
Now, let us go back to the rumored contact between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Simply put, Saudi Arabia was never in need for covert contacts. Saudi Arabia enjoys the respect of all nations. However, the Kingdom has the right to use whatever means to protect its interests. Iran might think it has been given a free hand to increase its influence in the region but it must not forget that the Kingdom is influential beyond its imaginations.
The West has miscalculated the situation and in a rush to reach a deal has given Iran time to pursue its nuclear goals and a free hand to meddle into the internal matters of other countries.
However, we wish Iran sees this as a golden opportunity to act as a good neighbor. As for Israel, it is an altogether different story. I shall write about it in near future.
