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by Maayana Miskin

Published: march 19, 2010.

Source: “Saudi Arabia seeks strike on Iran“; Arutz Sheva.

The German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported that Saudi Arabia is hoping Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, and is even prepared to open its skies to Israeli warplanes to allow such an operation to take place. Similar reports were published in 2009, and denied by both Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The Der Spiegel report stated that officials in Riyadh had spoken to United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the importance of stopping Iran’s nuclear program, even if doing so requires the use of military force.

The London Sunday Times claimed in 2009 (see the publication below) that Saudi Arabia would allow Israel to use its airspace to attack Iran. The paper quoted a former Israeli intelligence officer as saying,

“The Saudis are very concerned about an Iranian nuclear bomb, even more than the Israelis.”

Der Spiegel writer Bernhard Zand stated this week,

“These days, the Arabs fear the terrorists of al-Qaeda and Iran’s leadership, with its rabid rhetoric and nuclear program, as much as the Israelis do. Never before since the time of Israel’s creation were Jews and Arabs as united as they are in the face of the Iranian threat.”

Zand accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of failing to take advantage of Israel’s newfound common ground with the Arab world.

Iranian media dismissed the Der Spiegal report.

“Der Spiegel is greatly influenced by the Israeli regime and has previously published reports that were meant to serve as an Israeli propaganda campaign or psychological warfare against the Islamic Republic,” accused Iran’s Press TV.

The fear of terrorist takeovers of their governments and of Iran’s weaponization is the reason several Arab regimes, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, do not protest with U.S. military offensives against al-Kaeda and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Iraq, even though they are not part of the CENTCOM coalition that fights alongside the U.S.. These regimes are worried that the U.S. response to Iran will be too little and too late, according to a JINSA (the American based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs) analysis of the issue this week.

by Avraham Zuroff

Published: may 07, 2009.

Source: “Saudis would allow Israel to attack Iran“; Arutz Sheva.

Saudi Arabia would turn the other cheek and allow Israel to use its airspace to attack Iran, London’s Sunday Times reports. According to the report, Mossad chief Meir Dagan has told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Syria has hinted to the move.

“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israel air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source stated.

“The Saudis are very concerned about an Iranian nuclear bomb, even more that the Israelis,” a former Israeli intelligence head stated.

John Bolton, the former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., said that it was logical that Saudi Arabia would privately agree.

“None of them would say anything about it publicly, but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn’t trumpet it as a big success,” Bolton told several Arab leaders in the Gulf. “To this day, the Israelis haven’t admitted the specifics, but there’s one less nuclear facility in Syria,” Bolton added, referring to Israel’s attack on a Syrian nuclear site in 2007.

Bolton said that the Arab countries would publicly condemn Israel at the U.N. but would breathe easier if the Iranian nuclear threat would be eliminated.

Several media sources reported Friday that an Israeli Dolphin submarine passed through the Suez Canal on its way to the Red Sea last month as part of a naval exercise. Israeli security officials told the Reuters news agency that the exercise was done as part of testing Israel’s strategy in light of the Iranian nuclear threat. Egypt denied the reports.

Two weeks ago, IDF Commander in Chief Gabi Ashkenazi related to Israel’s possibly striking Iran and announced that Iran’s re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requires Israel to keep all its options open.

“His severe expression regarding his desire to attack the State of Israel, and the constant allowance of Iran to acquire non-conventional weaponry, requires us to keep the army posted and prepared and the air force ready and sharp like a razor. Our obligation as an army is to put all the options on the table and to be prepared to deal with any threat for near and afar,” Ashkenazi said at an air force graduation course.

Foreign media reported that Israel is performing military maneuvers to prepare for a possible strike on Iran, while Iran is making defensive plans. Among the exercises was an Israeli long-distance refueling in flight to the Straits of Gibraltar and Iran’s employing an anti-ballistic battery a half year ago.

Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, said Friday that Israel could be wiped off the map in seconds if Iran were to make a nuclear strike against Israel.

“This is a regime that’s willing to kill its own citizens; it will certainly have no compunctions killing other people in the region, Jews and Sunni Arabs alike,” Oren told journalist Jeffrey Goldberg at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.

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