US officials in the Middle East have said that Israel and Saudi Arabia, along with a series of other Arab states, are in secret talks to form a defence pact against Iran.
The move by the world’s only Jewish state and the Islamic state of Saudi Arabia, the historical home of Islam, would be a major change in geopolitics given that Saudi Arabia has been a staunch critic and opponent of Israel since its foundation, particularly in relation to its treatment of the Palestinian Arabs.
It is said that Israeli officials met with defence ministers from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt met in an Egyptian tourist resort in March to discuss the defence pact.
Iran, which is a Shia Muslim country, has a strong rivalry with Saudi and other members of the Arab world, who follow the Sunni branch of Islam. However, the rivalry could be said to be more driven by geo-political power than any religious reason. Saudi Arabia and Iran have fought a proxy war in Yemen for several years and both were involved covertly in the civil war in Syria that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
The Arab states and Israel, of which Iran is a fierce opponent, say that Iran’s development of missiles and drones, as well as its potential to acquire nuclear weapons, has resulted in them requiring to form a unique defence pact against the Islamic Republic.
Last year some Arab states began to officially recognise Israel as a state, something they had previously refused to do, and promised to open trade links between the Middle Eastern nations.
US President Joe Biden is expected to visit the Middle East in July in the hopes of finalising the deal between Israel and the Arab States. Iran, along with Syria, are Russia’s biggest allies in the Middle East and the US and Western nations will be likely looking to firm up defence in the region and guarantee a flow of oil as they move away from Russian exports.
While the formalising of defence relations between Israel and the Arab states may be welcome among respective governments, it is yet unclear how Arabs living in these countries will view any such deal, many of whom continue to regard Israel as an enemy expansionist state which has brutalised the Palestinian Arabs.
[Based on reporting by: The Guardian]
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