by Dr. Ronen Yitzhak
"We are losing weight
and the ship is sinking," said the headline of a cartoon published in
the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat last week.
This cartoon was one of
many published by the newspaper recently expressing Saudi and other
Gulf states' anger and frustration over both U.S. policy in the Middle
East since the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolutions and the White
House's seeming readiness to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear
program. Saudi commentators are so similar to their Israeli counterparts
that it has become impossible to distinguish between the respective
official positions over these issues.
The U.S.'s support of
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's ouster -- with Mubarak having been
one of Israel's and Saudi Arabia's closest friends in the Middle East --
and its refusal to publicly support the military putsch that brought
about President Mohammed Morsi's deposal, illustrated the joint interest
Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have in preventing the spread
of radical Islam throughout the region.
The war against Iran's
nuclear program -- a program that, according to many in the intelligence
community, is meant, first and foremost, to create a Shiite hegemony in
the Middle East while simultaneously decimating the statuses of Saudi
Arabia, the Sunni Gulf states, Jordan and Egypt -- also brought about a
secretive, strategic, Sunni-Israeli pact, the goal of which was to
thwart the Iranian nuclear program. Additionally, countering the Iranian
program opened the door for greater cooperation between the nations of
the Gulf Cooperation Council, countries where Israeli ministries with
similar interests had made limited contacts until 2009, closing those
channels after Operation Cast Lead was launched.
The conclusion in Saudi
Arabia, Gulf states and Israel in light of the U.S.'s conduct over
President Bashar Assad of Syria, U.S. President Barack Obama's limp
policy over Iranian nuclearization and the propriety of setting off on
negotiations with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani without Rouhani having
proved the earnestness of his intentions, is a united one. These
countries believe that the U.S. has grown weaker and either does not
want to or does not have the ability to play in the Middle East.
All the while, the
Iranians, laughing all the way to the nuclear bomb, are on the rise.
With Russian backing, Iranian support of the Assad regime has continued
(the Saudi's are against Assad and support, as we know, the Syrian
opposition). The Shiite subversion creeping through Sunni nations will
continue as Middle Eastern terrorism intensifies. Gulf states, disturbed
by this reality, are finding themselves absolutely aligned with Israeli
interests.
Even though diplomatic
relations between Israel and these nations do not openly exist, on a
subterranean level, a covert diplomatic-security portal has opened,
designed to facilitate coordination and bolster cooperative efforts,
which have markedly grown against the backdrop of joint efforts to
thwart the Iranian nuclear program. This is in addition to joint
security activities with Jordan and Egypt. In one previously leaked
piece of news, it was revealed that former Mossad chief Meir Dagan
secretly visited Saudi Arabia in 2010 to discuss with its leaders the
Iranian nuclear program. The Saudis also agreed, according to foreign
sources, to allow Saudi air space to be used by the air force if an
attack against Iran was to be launched, expressing a cooperative
attitude.
Cozier Israeli-Saudi relations
developed without any sort of official diplomatic channel. Given the
waning American influence in the region and an increasingly feeble sense
of security, it is very likely that this trend will only grow.
Dr. Ronen Yitzhak
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=5893
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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