Analysis: Israel and a Sunni Alliance

An alliance will see Israel teaming up with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey & the United Arab Emirates to forge a Middle East “moderate crescent” to “contain” Iran, rather than confront it.

By Gil Ronen

 

The report of a new alliance between Israel and several Sunni Muslim Arab states for “containment” of a nuclear Iran has people more worried than they should be, according to Arutz Sheva strategic affairs contributor, Mark Langfan.

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (left) has coffee with Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Fahd bin Abdullah upon his arrival April 23 at King Khaled Int'l Airport in Riyadh. - Photo Jim Watson AFP

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (left) has coffee with Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Fahd bin Abdullah upon his arrival April 23 at King Khaled Int’l Airport in Riyadh. – Photo: Jim Watson /AFP

 

Langfan says that the alliance is one of necessity for all partners, because Israel is, in effect, Saudi Arabia’s northwestern line of defense:

“With Mubarak’s toppling, Saudi Arabia lost an 80-million-population Arab country as its key strategic counterweight to Iran.

“What’s worse,” says Langfan, “the Saudis lost guaranteed access of the Suez Canal as an emergency supply node for an American defense of Saudi Arabia from an Iranian attack. With Obama’s wobbling on attacking Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni gulf kingdoms have only one hope, a Sunni-Israeli alliance.

“In short, with Mubarak’s fall, Egypt went from being a Saudi strategic ally, to a Muslim brotherhood enemy of the Saudis that couldn’t be trusted on any issue. Thus, Israel, and only Israel, became the Saudi Arabia’s military ally of necessity, and not convenience.

“The fact that they are in discussions to form an alliance shows that there is a military symbiosis between Israel and the Gulf kingdoms,” he adds.