Iran wanted Saudi Arabia to drop Israel

At first glance, Thursday’s first-ever phone call between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi might suggest the two predominantly Muslim nations are coming together to support Hamas and its war on Israel.

The Saudi prince, known as MBS, wants peace with Israel and his country’s full integration into the world economy, an agenda that puts him fundamentally at odds with Tehran’s drive to destroy Israel and dominate the Middle East through a network of clients and proxies.

According to the Saudi readout of Thursday’s call, MBS “reaffirmed the kingdom’s unshakable position in championing the Palestinian cause and in supporting efforts to bring comprehensive and just peace, which guarantees the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

For Tehran, the Saudi reference to peace is intolerable because Israel’s existence is intolerable.

Hamas’ charter likewise states the group’s goal is to “liberate Palestine, from River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west.”

Despite restoring diplomatic ties with the Saudis in April, Iran may have instigated Hamas to launch its Oct. 7 attack on Israel because it feared the progress of Saudi-Israeli normalization talks.

Ali Akbar Velayati, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s top foreign affairs aide, told Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in a Monday phone call that “whoever thinks they can solve their problems through normalization with the [Zionist] entity … should know that they are exposing the region to the dangers of their naïve plans, such as building corridors through the volatile Middle East.”

IIRC, the Saudis have always had a good backdoor relationship with Israel - mostly on intel and military matters.

I’m not 100% on board with the Saudis but I think they have (in recent years) tried to clean out the more virulent elements in the military and royal family. They are realizing that for all the oil money and influence they have, they’re not gonna go much of anywhere in the longterm.

They’ve started investing in medical research and making other improvements. They’ll never receive a 5-star rating from Amnesty Intl or Human Rights Watch - but they’re making some efforts.

peace with Israel is one of those goals.

The is a persistent rumor that the Saudis and Israel are secretly cooking up a deal to implement a 2-state solution for Israel pretty much mirroring the UN’s Resolution 181, the Plan for Partitioning the Mandatory Palestine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine

In 1947, the UN pollyannaishly assumed that Syria and Jordan could be coaxed into assuming administrative control of the Arab regions of Mandatory Palestine. When both refused to accept those responsibilities, Res 181 fell apart and the Palestinian Jews — still reeling from the horrors of the Holocaust — took it on themselves to seize control of the entire region and declare it the State of Israel.

Since then, Israel has had nothing good to say about the 2-state solution because in any currently proposed configuration, they would be turning over autonomy of the Arab-controlled regions of Israel to the same Muhammadan fanatics who have been trying to kill them for the last 75 years.

Saudi’s (suspected) role in this would be to take on the role originally proposed for Syria and Jordan, as administrators for the Arab-controlled regions. Israel’s “due diligence,” obviously, is to receive assurances that the Saudis could be counted on to serve as “honest brokers,” to administer in the interest of the whole country (and indeed in the interest of the peace of the entire Middle-East) rather than arbitrarily siding with their brother Muhammadans.

What Saudi Arabia stands to gain from this is a more peaceful region and a tighter alliance with Israel, particularly as regards Iran (and potentially preventing Iran becoming nuclear-armed), because Saudi is the big dog of the Sunni countries and Iran is the head cheese of the Shiite world. So if Iran gets the bomb, the Saudis would be obliged to do the same, kicking off a new nuclear arms race. Which nobody (apart Iran) thinks would be any good for the Arabs.

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