[libh8er]

That doesn’t make sense. The Saudis are all for Israel denuking Iran.

[Southack]

Exactly. The Arab Saudis despise the Persian Iranians. Sunni versus Shi’ite.

[Colorado Doug]

Obama and his muslim brotherhood buddies simply told The Saudis “Nice little kingdom you got there it would be a shame if something happened to it.”

[muir_redwoods]

It’s noisy blather for public consumption to create cover for SA. No Israeli flights will be stopped and SA will, too late, raise a meaningless ruckus.

[justa-hairyape]

The Saudis are all for Israel denuking Iran.

It all depends on who is playing who and what time of day it is. They probably would prefer Israel and Iran to annihilate themselves. And also for the west and east to annihilate ourselves. And with the current leaders the west and east have, it's just a matter of time.

[Tallguy]

That doesn’t make sense. The Saudis are all for Israel denuking Iran.

Makes perfect sense if the sticking point for the Saudis is US participation in any raid in Iran. The Saudis are vulnerable to Iranian counterstrikes and the closure of Hormuz. They would need US assistance to defend themselves.

So the US (Obama) says that we'll "sit this one out." Saudi Arabia says, "Well if you're not in, neither are we." But that still leaves the problem of an IDF strike -- which will still invite Iranian retaliation on the entire Gulf Region. The only thing that the Saudis can do is tell the IAF that they will actively oppose overflight. (But maybe still let them thru anyway).

[bert]

The time table for raids is thus shown to be after the American election and the displacement of the weak and totally ineffective Obama.

[redgolum]

They want the conflict to be low key. If one or the other side wins, the balance will change. SA doesn't want Iran or Israel to win, but both to have a cold war.

[teflon9]

What governments (especially authoritarian ones) say publicly and what they say privately through back-channels are two different things. This statement is no doubt for domestic consumption (i.e. to keep the Arab "street" happy). If Israeli attack planes do cross Saudi airspace, the Saudi's can either deny it or blame jamming.

[PGR88]

The Saudis, like all hypocrite Muslim politicians, publicly are against Israel, while privately encourage the to bomb Iran.

[Eleutheria5]

They are. But if they outright say so, they’re looking for an Arab spring to sproing right in their face. There’s also the Arab obsession with “face”. Their actual response will resemble No. 2 above, along with a lot of gnashing of teeth, condemning Israeli “aggression” and threats of retaliation that will come to nothing.

[sheik yerbouty]

The effendis must publicly whinge about it to keep their Muzcred..