"It's a blow to Israel's notion and efforts in recent years to try to form an anti-Iran bloc in the region," said Yoel Guzansky, an expert on the Persian Gulf at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank. The UAE also resumed formal relations with Iran last year. Saudi Arabia's decision to engage with its regional rival has left Israel largely alone as it leads the charge for diplomatic isolation of Iran and threats of a unilateral military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. In a speech to American Jewish leaders last month, Netanyahu described a peace agreement as "a goal that we are working on in parallel with the goal of stopping Iran."īut experts say the deal that broke out Friday has thrown cold water on those ambitions. Since returning to office late last year, Netanyahu and his allies have hinted that a deal with the kingdom could be approaching. Even as backdoor relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia have grown, the kingdom has said it won't officially recognize Israel before a resolution to the decadeslong Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel and Iran have also waged a regional shadow war that has led to suspected Iranian drone strikes on Israeli-linked ships ferrying goods in the Persian Gulf, among other attacks.Ī normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, the most powerful and wealthy Arab state, would fulfill Netanyahu's prized goal, reshaping the region and boosting Israel's standing in historic ways. He has portrayed himself as the only politician capable of protecting Israel from Tehran's rapidly accelerating nuclear program and regional proxies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. One of Netanyahu's greatest foreign policy triumphs remains Israel's U.S.-brokered normalization deals in 2020 with four Arab states, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates - part of a wider push to isolate and oppose Iran in the region. In Israel, it caused disappointment - along with a cascade of finger-pointing. In countries like Yemen and Syria, long caught between the Sunni kingdom and the Shiite powerhouse, the announcement stirred cautious optimism. The agreement, which gives Iran and Saudi Arabia two months to reopen their respective embassies and re-establish ties after seven years of rupture, more broadly represents one of the most striking shifts in Middle Eastern diplomacy over recent years. 5 Things to Know newsletter: Sign up to start your day with the biggest stories.
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