Palestinians Thrilled by Saudi-Iran Agreement
Top PLO officials hail blow to Netanyahu government and say it’s clearly time to abandon America as an honest peace broker.
The China-brokered rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia is a major boost for the Palestinian nationalist cause.
What’s being hailed in the United States and Israel as a major diplomatic failure is cause for celebration among the Palestinian Authority.
The surprise China-brokered rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran presumably hobbles Israel’s efforts to normalize relations with the Arab world, while bolstering the Jewish state’s primary regional foe and the chief backer of Palestinian terror groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
“The Palestinian Presidency appreciates the Chinese role that contributed to reaching the agreement,” read a statement released by the Palestinian Authority. “We hope that the agreement will lead to stability and enhance the positive atmosphere in the region.”
For Israel and the West, any deal that aids the ambitions of the ayatollahs in Tehran can only lead to instability and more belligerence in the Middle East.
Members of the PLO Executive Committee, the power behind the Palestinian Authority, hailed the agreement as a blow to Israel’s new government and a clear signal that it was time for the Palestinians to stop looking to Washington as an honest and unbiased peace broker.
In other words, the Palestinians have already aligned with Iran, and want to now align further with the global axis led by Russia and China, which is increasingly in conflict with the West.
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Iran-Saudi Rapprochement Won’t Change Much, Insists Israeli Analyst
Iran remains the heart of Shia Islam, and Saudi Arabia the custodian of Sunni Islam. Not even China can make the two warring factions trust one another.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud
Senior Israeli Middle East analyst Ehud Ya’ari on Sunday urged a more moderate and informed reaction to news of renewed diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“Some proportion, my friends!” Ya’ari opened his article on the N12 news portal. “Reactions to the renewal of diplomatic ties between the two biggest rivals in the Persian Gulf have so far been exaggerated and alarmist.”
He then sought to inject some facts into the discussion.
- Iran remains the home base of Shia Islam, while Saudi Arabia is still ground zero for Sunni Islam. The two branches of Islam have not suddenly come to some accord. And religion continues to play an overriding role in the politics of every Middle Eastern state. So don’t expect these two custodians of Islam’s warring factions to suddenly trust one another.
- This is not an unprecedented development. Iran and Saudi Arabia maintained embassies in one another’s capitals up until 2016, when Riyadh executed a local Shiite scholar for incitement. Before that the two countries had diplomatic relations, but that didn’t mean they trusted one another.
- Great enmity remains between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the two are not going to suddenly become partners in fulfilling the agenda of one side or the other.
Ya’ari noted that the agreement brokered by China made reference to an unimplemented 2001 deal calling for security coordination between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but the Israeli said that “only a gullible person would believe this will now happen.”
Nor does he worry that the renewal of diplomatic relations of convenience between Iran and Saudi Arabia will prevent the latter from normalizing relations with Israel. Ya’ari pointed out that both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also maintain diplomatic relations with Iran, and both now host Israeli embassies in their capitals.
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