An unnamed senior Saudi Arabian official accused Tehran of having “engineered a war in Gaza” to interfere with Jerusalem’s attempts to normalize relations with Riyadh, before describing the regime as “a country that sponsors terrorism, and it should have been stopped a long time ago.”
The anonymous individual said in an interview with Israel’s Kan public broadcaster that “any suspicious object” entering his country’s airspace is intercepted by the Kingdom’s defense forces. The comment may suggest that there was some level of participation by the Saudis in neutralizing the missiles and attack drones that the Islamic Republic fired at Israel on Saturday.
Media reports have confirmed that the American, British, French, and Jordanian militaries assisted the IDF in the air defenses during the bombardment.
In 2020, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco signed normalization agreements with the Jewish state under the direction of the Trump administration, in what was called the Abraham Accords. The following January, Sudan would also join the reconciliation.
Any diplomatic understandings between Israel and Saudi Arabia would be seen as a big boost to regional security, considering the Kingdom is often viewed as the most powerful Arab-majority country in the world.
