ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN TIES
Saudi Arabia and Iran are regional rivals who support opposing parties in civil wars in Yemen and Syria.
Saudi naval forces on June 16 seized an Iranian vessel suspected of carrying explosives and members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to attack a Saudi oil facility in the Persian Gulf.
U.S. forces have long tried to avert open conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran on the high seas, said Eric Pelofsky, a special assistant to former president Barack Obama who focused on the war in Yemen. “At the moment, the crown prince seems to think always on offense is the way to go.”
Bin Salman, whose Sunni monarchy considers itself the protector of Islam’s holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina, accused Shiite Iran of trying to “control the Arab world” and dismissed the possibility of a dialogue because of its leaders’ “extremist ideology.”
“We are not waiting until there becomes a battle in Saudi Arabia, so we will work so that it becomes a battle for them in Iran,” he said in a May 2 interview that ran on several Saudi television channels.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gholamali Khoshroo, later called the comments “unveiled threats.”
The rivalry with Iran drives most of Saudi Arabia’s international relations and helps shape its dealings with the U.S., said Hussein Ibish, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a think tank.
He said bin Salman’s hawkish approach to Iran is in line with Trump, who has made countering Iran and its support for terrorism a priority. Saudi Arabia and Israel share a common enemy in Iran and an alliance with the U.S., and all three are fighting terrorism and coordinating those efforts to some extent. The failure of peace efforts between the Israelis and Palestinians has prevented full diplomatic and economic relations.
Bin Salman would like to develop what today is a clandestine security and trade relationship with Israel into an open and deeper partnership, said Simon Henderson, director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Ibish said the Saudi prince’s calculation would likely be based on how close he can get to Israel without providing fodder to “extremists and fanatics” in the region who capitalize on Arabs’ legitimate concerns about the Israeli occupation and Palestinian rights.
“Anyone who deals with the Israelis gets slammed with this,” Ibish said.
As Trump adviser and son-inlaw Jared Kushner arrived in Israel last week to discuss a possible peace deal, Ibish said the goal is not necessarily a “final status agreement” but rather “real progress” that provides stability and hope for a future resolution.
“This is the thinking among those in the Gulf interested in this,” including bin Salman, Ibish said.
RIFT WITH QATAR
Bin Salman is likely playing a key role in the rift with Qatar in the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council.