Mittwoch, 03.01.2018 / 14:51 Uhr

Ein verändertes Saudi Arabien

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Aus dem Netz

Der israelische Diplomat Dore Gold beschreibt seine Erfahrungen mit Saudi Arabien:

So what is the situation today? What draws Israel and Saudi Arabia to the same side of the fence?

  • First, there are the Sunni extremist organizations. There was al-Qaeda in the past, and in recent years there has been ISIS, and both have mounted a threat to both our countries.

  • Second, clearly Iran looms large in the regional problems that both Israel and Saudi Arabia face. There’s the Iranian nuclear program, which is likely to lead to an operational nuclear weapon in the not-too-distant future.

    Just a few years back, the head of Israeli military intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash, revealed that analysis of Iranian missile tests indicated that there were two cities on the Iranian target list: one was Riyadh and the other one was Tel Aviv. So both of us are affected by Iran’s growing nuclear and missile program.

  • There’s a third common thread tying Israel and Saudi Arabia together. Both countries are facing Iranian efforts to destabilize our strategic environment. The Iranians have been seeking to encircle Israel by supporting terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to our south, in Lebanon to our north, and now in Syria and possibly even the West Bank in the period ahead. Today, it is the Islamic Republic of Iran that is providing the bulk of funding to the Hamas budget.

    For Saudi Arabia, it’s clear that Iran has entered into Yemen through the Houthis to the south, they are trying to take over Bahrain which they regard as a province of Iran, and they have these huge Shiite militias that have been active in Iraq as well.

Over the last number of years I have met with senior officials who in the past worked for the Saudi government. I am convinced that Israel and Saudi Arabia share common concerns. I think Israel should make every effort to try and bridge the gap with Saudi Arabia, even discretely, even though there are glitches that can occur as two countries with very different backgrounds try and find common ground.