Israel and Saudi Arabia: A United Front Against Iran

February 21, 2017

by: Ilse Posselt

Tuesday, 21 February 2017 | At first glance, the nations of Israel and Saudi Arabia share little common ground. The majority of residents in the Jewish state ascribe to the culture, religion, values and principles of Judaism while the lives of those who call Saudi Arabia home are governed by Islam. Moreover, since the birth of the modern State of Israel in 1948, there have been no formal diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Riyadh. There is, however, one aspect on which Israel and Saudi Arabia see eye-to-eye: the danger that Iran poses to the region and the rest of the world.

According to Reuters, Jerusalem and Riyadh presented a “united front” against the Islamic Republic over the weekend at the Munich Security Conference where both nations issued “almost identical warnings of caution against Iranian aggression,” and called on the international community to act against Iran “for a myriad of activities undermining regional stability.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir reportedly “closed ranks” to reject a call from Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for Sunni Gulf Arab nations to unite with Tehran in a bid to “reduce violence across the region,” Reuters reports.

“Iran remains the single main sponsor of terrorism in the world,” al-Jubeir told the audience at the conference. The Islamic Republic, he assured, serves as a destabilizing force in the Middle East, pointing to Iran’s active role in the propping up President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the Syrian civil war, its development of ballistic missiles in contravention with United Nations resolutions and funding Shi’ite rebels in Yemen.

Al-Jubeir told the conference, the Islamic Republic is “determined to upend the order in the Middle East … (and) until and unless Iran changes its behavior it would be very difficult to deal with a country like this.”

Al-Jubeir continued to call on the international community to set “red lines” to stop the Islamic Republic’s dangerous course of action and suggested “banking, travel and trade restrictions aimed at changing Tehran’s behavior,” Reuters reported.

For his part, Lieberman explained that Iran’s ultimate goal was to undermine Saudi Arabia and urged for a dialogue between the Jewish state and Sunni Arab nations in the Middle East to stand against “radical” elements in the region.

“The real division,” Lieberman explained to the conference, “is not Jews, Muslims… but moderate people versus radical people.”

Turkey also spoke out against Iran, adding its voice to the “united front” against Tehran presented by Israel and Saudi Arabia. Admonishing the Islamic Republic’s “sectarian policy” geared towards undermining Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said “Turkey is very much against any kind of division, religious or sectarian. It is good that we are now normalizing our relations with Israel.”

Posted on February 21, 2017

Source: (Bridges for Peace, 21 February 2017)