On Monday, Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Speculation of a possible meeting first started when observers noticed a private plane made a rare flight from Tel Aviv to the Saudi city of Neom, where the meeting was said to have taken place.
The news has been met with conflicting statements by Saudi and Israeli officials. While Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister denied that the meeting took place, an Israeli official said it did happen, and Saudi sources shared details of the meeting with The Wall Street Journal.
According to some reports, Netanyahu was joined by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency chief Yossi Cohen. Netanyahu and MBS discussed Iran and a possible agreement to normalize relations, following the deals known as the Abraham Accords, which the UAE and Bahrain recently signed. But sources said no deal was made, and the Saudis are not expected to take steps to normalize with Israel anytime soon.
“Despite the efforts by Netanyahu and Pompeo to convince them, the Saudis made clear that, at the moment, they are not ready to take the extra step,” an Israeli official told Israel’s Channel 12.
Pompeo has made it clear in recent comments that one of the main purposes of the normalization deals between Arab countries and Israel is to isolate Iran. With the Trump administration looking to ramp up its “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran before Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th, reaching new normalization deals is likely part of the strategy.
Tensions are particularly high in the Middle East between the US and Iran after a report said President Trump reviewed options for a military strike on Iranian nuclear sites earlier this month. Since the report, the US has moved F-16 fighter jets from Germany to the UAE and sent several B-52 bombers to the region, which flew near Israeli airspace.
Pompeo wants Israel and SA to publically announce their relationship which was a secrete till now so Trump can add it to his portfolio….! But that is not going to bring any legacy to the lame duck Trump…!
Would have been a wonderful time for a drone strike.. take out three pieces of shit at once…
Did the king know about this ? The Saudis have been very vocal in their denial.
I am fascinated by the obvious elephant in the room everyone ignores.
No Gulf state will participate in any hostilities against Iran, the rhetoric notwithstanding. Let us start with Saudi Arabia. Since June 2017 palace coup, many things changed, and neocon narrative proves it. You can always learn by following its rather ham-fisted hints. Saudi Crown Prince was target from day one. And for a reason. Ousted Crown Prince MB Nayaf was remarkably devoted to US foreign policy objective. He was from the days he attended FBI school following his failure at an American college. And he inherited his powerful father’s Ministry of the Interior, Saudi version of FBI and Homeland Security wrapped up in one.
He was the force behind Saudi funding of Islamic militants with the strict Wahhabi ideological bend, creating essentially highly indoctrinated CULTS. It hardly matters what was their name or nominal leaders. It mattered the infusion of religious leaders, experienced military leaders and trained fighters. With the money, food and other products distributed through religious leaders, they helped sustain whole cult clans They advertised their pious community life, getting young and vulnerable from Europe and other parts of world to come.
Their goal in Syria and Iraq (they had other goals elsewhere) was to coerce Sunni population in Iraq and Syria to join them. Those not willing were beheaded – a message to others to comply. Then it was time to announce Caliphate, a clear territorial pretension, from Mosul and Kirkuk to far beyond Euphrates in Syria.
It all looked good — Obama was not really interfering — only announcing that we killed here and there some ISIS leader. ISIS was not supposed to last. The REAL objective was to use ISIS as a placeholder to accomplish THREE things:
1/ create a Kurdish state from portions of Iraq, Syria and Turkey,
2/ create a Sunni state straddling Iraq Sunni areas and Syrian majority Sunni tribes across Euphrates and Deir Azzor, and
3/regime change and control of all pieces, Kurdistan protectorate, Sunni protectorate, and regime change in rump Syria and Iraq.
That was to become the new geography of the Middle East. This architecture was meant to control any transit between Mediterranean and Anatolia and Gulf states. That would have given Israel the freedom to expand further, as no country in the region would present a problem.
Levant and greater part of the Euphrates/Tigers region was to be reshaped.
What went wrong? Russia. Russia saw the plan as a springboard to Caucasus and its Sunni population.
Turkey saw as well the danger of not just losing territory — but any connectivity to Middle East. When Erdogan announced first military move into Syria to cut off ISIS and Kurd incursion, in his speech to the nation he declared that Turkey was not going to be isolated in Anatolia.
Russia came in October 2015, and since — between Russia and Turkey ISIS was pushed into area of Syria under US air control. Between October 2015 and April 2017, ISIS was on the retreat in Iraq and Syria.
In Baghdad, intelligence sharing body was set up between Iraq, Russia and Iran. Iraqi Army no longer was pray to ISIS ambush, and was progressing towards Mosul.
Side dramas were played out by US enabling by far more potent Turkish Kurd PKK, by importing them into Iraq to challenge Peshmerga that resisted US and Israeli guidance.
PKK was imported into Syria under name YPG, while US established a politically correct Syrian Democratic forces (SDF) to support openly, while YPG did all the dirty work — pushing out weakened ISIS, and placing those areas under Kurdish control,
Turkey then intervened again, this time in Afrin, to cut off attempts to link Kurdish enclaves of Kobane and Afrin.
Trump saw what was coming, and when he visited Saudi Arabia — openly changed Obama policy of quiet transformation into Kurdish and Sunni regions – by declaring exit from Syria after defeating ISIS.
He did what was obvious — better for US to fight ISIS, be a winner, and establish relevance in the region, then let Iraq and Syria win,
This was the death knell to Saudi Crown Prince, AND Saudi total reliance on US. In June 2017 when MBS took over, his father King Salman — presumably demented — led a 2000 strong delegation to Russia, where besides business dealings, many long term strategic markers were put in place.
To skip the process , outcome is the END of Saudi funded and indoctrinated militant cults.
Mosul fell to Iraqis — in spite of French pleading to establish Mosul as an internationally managed city.
Trump had to walk the walk, and Raqqa fell a year later — albeit with the same YPG and. SDF formula of ISIS territory absorption.
This collapsed when Turkey called the bluff – and result being Russia-Turkey border 10 mile buffer jointly patrolled ever since.
Saudi Arabia defended itself from a number of internal mini coups and one a potentially large scale. The supporters of previous Crown Prince are still in security apparatus. They organized assassination of Kashoggi, and Saudis have to handle this with velvet gloves to avoid more anger among those that lost power. Another attempt involved MB Nayaf himself, now arrested.
As a result, public opinion in the Kingdom has shifted — more people see US and Israel as more dangerous then Iran.
MBS said that he will be killed by his own people should he recognize Israel.
There is a great probability that Iran has understanding with Saudis, Kuwait and Oman.
While UAE and Bahrain are captive to Western financial influence in UAE and Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
In Oman – an insurance policy of Turkish base is to counter British.
In Kuwait, over 40% Shia population wants nothing to do with war in Iran. Oman is out as well, due to cordial relations with Iran,
Who is left? Nobody. Qatar has now two Turkish bases, with over 20,000 soldiers. Turkey has three in Iraq — controlling PKK activities.
Russia has now a naval base in Sudan, as well as thee additional bases in Syria, Turkey has now base in Somalia capital Mogadisho.
Not to mention Turkish presence in Syria, and Russia/Turkey presence in Libya. In all cases they control irreconcilable elements, while bringing simultaneously opposing sides towards agreements.
The identical process has been applied to kick start resolving Armenian and Azerbaijan frozen conflict.
Israel and US have an entirely new problem. Turkey is openly hostile to Israel. From Palestinian issue to Israeli gas pipeline.
This is for Israel a huge problem — Turkey is a NATO state, defending its interests, having military bases as other NATO countries do.
Is attack on Iran even possible under circumstances?
It will be interesting to see what NATO does. As EU is in favor of JPOC, it is hard to imagine endorsing attack on Iran.
The lighthearted commentary on whether Israel or US will or will not attack Iran — is out of touch with reality. There was a reason Turkey installed Russian S-400. And there is a reason US is unhappy. In any conflict with Israel Turkey will have defensive edge
.
It is not technology that is a problem — after all Greece has S-300. The issue is —Israel is losing advantage against main adversary.
The plot thickens.