Saudi Arabia says it helped defend Israel against Iran — report

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses Saudi Arabia's involvement in helping defend Israel against an Iranian attack, as well as the broader regional military cooperation and normalization efforts between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Western powers.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Saudi Arabia's Involvement in Defending Israel

1. What was Saudi Arabia's role in defending Israel against the Iranian attack?

• Saudi Arabia acknowledged that it had helped the newly forged regional military coalition, which included Israel, the United States, Jordan, the United Kingdom, and France, to repel an Iranian attack against Israel.
• Many of the Iranian drones and missiles had to travel over Jordanian and Saudi airspace to reach Israel, and Saudi Arabia had a system to automatically intercept any suspicious entities in its airspace.
• However, the Al Arabiya news site reported that Saudi Arabia had not participated in the interception of the Iranian drones and missiles.

2. What was the context of this military cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Israel?

• In the weeks before the October 7th attack by Hamas, the United States had been involved in intense diplomatic activity to promote a three-way deal that would have included a strategic pact between Riyadh and Washington against Iran, a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia and Israel, and a renewed pathway to Palestinian statehood.
• The joint defensive military maneuvers marked the first time that the five armies, with help from Saudi Arabia, had worked together as a nascent coalition to repel an Iranian attack.

[02] Iran's Role and the Gaza War

1. What was Iran's alleged role in instigating the Gaza war?

• A source connected to the Saudi Royal family told KAN that Iran had instigated the Gaza war, through its proxy group Hamas, to thwart US efforts for a Saudi normalization deal.