The online version of the London Times is reporting that Saudi Arabia has given the Israelis permission to use Saudi airspace to facilitate an Israeli air attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is consistent with the attack scenario that I have been proposing in my blogs for some time. The reason for the Saudi willingness to cooperate with the Israelis in such a raid is that “they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.” This is, no doubt, true. According to the article (see link below), the Saudi military has already conducted an exercise to make sure that they can shut down their air defense system effectively to make sure that they do not shoot down Israeli jets if such a raid is launched.
The article also cites a number of examples of Israeli-Sunni Arab cooperation that have been discussed in my prior blogs. These examples include Egypt’s willingness to allow Israeli warships to transit the Suez Canal and the sharing of information between the head of the Israeli Mossad and his Saudi intelligence counterparts. Such meetings will logically be denied officially, but there is no question that the Israelis and the Sunni Arab nations have a strong common interest in stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
The article also notes that “Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are at least as worried as [the Israelis] and the West about an Iranian nuclear arsenal.” Those three Sunni Islamic nations have been specified in my previous blogs as being likely to welcome an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The link mentions that a 2007 raid by the Israelis on a Syrian nuclear project was somewhat facilitated by Turkish cooperation. Given the deep rift that has developed between Israel and Turkey since then, Turkey is highly unlikely to cooperate with any Israeli strike against Iran or anyone else.
The role of the USA is rather murky in this report. It reports that the USA approves of the Saudi-Israeli cooperation, but then later it adds that the USA is refusing to give permission to the Israelis to cross Iraqi air space. By refusing to give approval to Israeli jets to cross Iraqi airspace, it places the Obama administration in the very odd position of protecting the radicals in Iran from an Israeli strike.
I wish to thank reader, Jason, for sending me this link, which is well-worth passing on to all readers of this blog.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7148555.ece
