Israel and Saudis: Best of Friends?

They’re strange bedfellows, allies of convenience against a common adversary – Iran for its sovereign independence and opposition to their hegemonic ambitions.

In an unprecedented interview with London-based, Saudi-owned Elaph.com, IDF chief of staff Gadi Eizenkot said Israel is willing to share intelligence with Riyadh.

He claimed with Trump as US president,

“there is an opportunity for a new international alliance in the region and a major strategic plan to stop the Iranian threat.”

“We are ready to exchange experiences with moderate Arab countries and exchange intelligence to confront Iran.”

Riyadh and Tel Aviv share “many common interests,” he added, calling Tehran the region’s “biggest threat.”

Fact: Washington, Israel and Riyadh are the region’s leading state sponsors of terrorism – supporting the scourge the Islamic Republic opposes.

Fact: Iran hasn’t attacked another country in centuries. Israel and Riyadh are permanently at war internally and/or abroad – the region’s two leading human rights abusers, a threat to world peace, what Iran fosters and supports.

Eisenkot lied claiming Tehran aims “to control the Middle East by means of two Shiite crescents. The first from Iran through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon, and the second from Bahrain through to Yemen until the Red Sea.”

“This is what must be prevented in the region. In this matter, there is complete agreement between us and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has never been our enemy. It has not fought us nor have we fought it.”

Fact: Israel seeks regional dominance along with Washington’s presence. Riyadh wants uncontested Arab world control.

Fact: Both countries are warrior nations. They support ISIS, al-Qaeda, its al-Nusra offshoot and other regional terrorist groups..

Fact: Allied with Washington, they represent an axis of pure evil. Iran is a peacemaker, not a belligerent, threatening no other countries anywhere.

Eisenkot:

“When I was at a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington and heard what the Saudi representative had to say, I found it identical to what I think about Iran and the need to confront it and to confront its expansion in the region.”

Fact: Iran isn’t revanchist. It has no territorial ambitions. Nor does it seek dominance over other nations, fostering cooperative relations instead.

Netanyahu boasts about high-level cooperation with Riyadh. One rogue state supports another – best of friends apparently without formal diplomatic relations.

Iran doesn’t recognize Israel’s legitimacy, never saying it seeks the Jewish state’s destruction, as falsely claimed – or intends developing nuclear weapons it deplores and wants eliminated.

Eisenkot said

“(o)ur demand is for Hezbollah to leave Syria and for Iran and its militias to retreat from Syria.”

“We have said openly, and also quietly and secretly too, that we will not accept Iranian consolidation in Syria in general, and their concentration west of the Damascus” – within 50 km of Israel’s border.

“We will not allow any Iranian presence. We have warned them against building factories or military bases and we will not allow it.”

Iranian forces operate from Syrian bases, mostly as military advisors. It may or may not intend building one or more military bases in the country, its legal right with permission from Damascus.

Israeli military intelligence-connected DEBKAfile lied, claiming

“Iran already has 13 bases in Syria and tens of thousands of troops.” Utter rubbish!

Eisenkot’s interview came two weeks after Lebanese PM Saad Hariri’s forced resignation and detention under house arrest in Riyadh – along with scores of Saudi princes, ministers and others arrested and detained, as well as belligerent Saudi threats against Iran and Hezbollah.

If Washington, Israel and Riyadh launch war on Iran, it could be prelude to global war involving Russia – unthinkable but possible.


By Stephen Lendman
Source: Stephen Lendman

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