Reports that
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman is ready to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a possible trip to Abu Dhabi should come as no surprise. This is not only because of a rumored meeting last November, but because of wider regional dynamics that have brought Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as Israel and the Abraham Accord partners in the Gulf closer.
While support for
Saudi Arabia has waned in some Western countries, perceptions of Saudi Arabia’s importance to the recent Abraham Accords and thus to the region and Israel in general, have grown.
This paradoxical change in affairs has happened for a variety of reasons, including Iran’s increasing threats through groups like the Houthis in Yemen, and changes in Riyadh over the last decade that led to the conclusion that possible US reduction in focus on the region required a closer alignment with Israel.
The milestones on the way to the current mutual interests between Israel and Saudi Arabia include several key symbolic incidents. Saudi Arabia had an increasingly acrimonious relationship with the Obama administration in the wake of the 2015 Iran Deal. It intervened in Yemen that year to stop the Iranian-backed Houthis taking Aden and putting an Iranian foothold on the strategic Bab el-Mandab straits.
Reuters reported in 2017 on secret contacts between Israel and Saudi Arabia. At the time, it was known that former Saudi Intelligence head Prince Turki al-Faisal had shaken hands with Yaakov Amidror, a former senior adviser to Netanyahu, at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
In 2018, Israel denied a report that Saudi Arabia was seeking to purchase its Iron Dome air defense system. Saudi Arabia was key to enabling the Abraham Accords and signaled its support. Since then, rumors included the November meeting in Saudi Arabia and a February report about a possible four country defensive pact.
For Israel, the positive position of Saudi Arabia on various issues is important. More challenging is the cold shoulder Riyadh has increasingly received from the US. That is balanced by Washington’s signals that it wants to listen to Israel and the Gulf states more regarding any new Iran deal. This is a major departure from the lead-up to the 2015 agreement.
