Saudi Arabia Prepared to Let Israel Into Saudi Airspace to Bomb Iranian Nuclear Sites If Necessary

Official: 'Saudi authorities are completely coordinated with Israel on all matters related to Iran'

BY: Abraham Rabinovich
February 25, 2015 2:15 pm

JERUSALEM—Saudi Arabia has let Israel know that it is prepared to allow Israeli warplanes to fly over Saudi territory to bomb nuclear installations in Iran if that should prove necessary, Israel’s Channel Two has reported.

The station cited a “knowledgeable” European official in Brussels as saying “The Saudi authorities are completely coordinated with Israel on all matters related to Iran.”

The Jewish state and the Saudi kingdom, site of the holiest shrines in Islam, share a strategic concern over Iran’s pursuit of influence in the region and the possibility that it will produce nuclear weapons. Israel’s concern is focused on threats by Iranian leaders that it will be wiped off the map. Saudi Arabia, whose state religion is Sunni Islam, sees Iran as an aggressive Shiite opponent. Both are unwilling to countenance the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran.

According to the television report, Israel and Saudi Arabia share intelligence regarding Iran’s nuclear program and are concerned about reported concessions made by the West in the comprehensive agreement it is attempting to hammer out with Tehran on the issue. Although the agreement is supposed to diminish the possibility of Iran’s producing a bomb in the near future, both Jerusalem and Riyadh object to the possibility that it will be left with a nuclear infrastructure capable of being activated in a brief time.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is set to address a joint session of Congress on the subject next week at the invitation of Speaker of the House John Boehner (R., Ohio). The White House and Democratic leaders have expressed displeasure with the planned speech.

Channel Two’s foreign affairs reporter said that the Saudis have asked Israel for “some kind of progress” on the Palestinian issue to make Riyadh’s cooperation with Israel more palatable in the Muslim world. There has been no Israeli reaction to the report.

More: The Washington Free Beacon