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Israel and Saudi Arabia: What's Shaping the Covert "Alliance"

(BBC News) Jonathan Marcus - To all intents and purposes, Saudi Arabia and Israel are de facto allies in the struggle against Iran's rising influence in the region. A former senior Israeli military figure speaking in London told of two recent meetings with senior Saudi princes, both of whom said to him words to the effect that, "you are not our enemy anymore." Such signals are carefully coordinated and intended to warn Iran as well as to prepare Saudi society, given the likelihood that such ties may become ever more apparent. The Israelis - given the nature of their political culture - tend to speak rather more openly about the relationship than do the Saudis. We know little about its practical realities or its strategic content. But it is real and it is developing. Israelis see Syria as "a laboratory" of what could be the region's future. They have watched with horror at what some see as the "normalization" of the use of chemical weapons, prompting a very limited response from the international community.
2017-11-24 00:00:00
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