Exclusive: As the Obama administration is rushing to complete a nuclear agreement with Iran and reduce regional tensions, the Israeli media is reporting on a deal with Saudi Arabia to let Israeli warplanes transit Saudi airspace en route to bombing Iran, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
According to an Israeli media report, Saudi Arabia has agreed to let Israeli warplanes fly over Saudi territory to save fuel while attacking Iranian nuclear sites, the latest indication of how the two former enemies have developed a behind-the-scenes alliance that is reshaping geopolitics in the Middle East.
“The Saudi authorities are completely coordinated with Israel on all matters related to Iran,” a European official in Brussels told Israel’s Channel 2 in a report broadcast on Tuesday and described in other Israeli media outlets.
Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan (left) and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (right). (Photo credit: Press TV)
Riyadh’s only condition was that Israel make some progress in peace talks with the Palestinians, a stipulation that may be mostly cosmetic so the Saudis can save face with other Arab states without really interfering with an Israeli flyover to strike Iran.
Disclosure of this Israeli-Saudi military cooperation comes as the United States and five other world powers rush to finish an agreement with Iran to curtail but not eliminate its nuclear program, which Iran says is only for civilian purposes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to appear before the U.S. Congress on March 3 to undercut President Barack Obama’s negotiations.
The reported Saudi permission for Israeli warplanes to take a shorter route to bomb Iran also suggests that Netanyahu may be laying the groundwork for his own plans to attack the Iranian nuclear sites if the international negotiations are successful. Netanyahu has denounced a possible deal as an “existential threat” to Israel.
In recent years, Israel and Saudi Arabia have quietly begun cooperating on a range of mutual interests with the goal of blunting Iran’s regional influence. For instance, they have sided with rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an Iranian ally, even if the victors might be Islamist radicals affiliated with al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.
Elements of the Saudi royal family have long been known to support Islamist militants, including forces associated with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that convicted al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui identified leading members of the Saudi government as financiers of the terrorist network.
According to the story, Moussaoui said in a prison deposition that he was directed in 1998 or 1999 by Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan to create a digital database of the group’s donors and that the list included Prince Turki al-Faisal, then Saudi intelligence chief; Prince Bandar bin Sultan, longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States; Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent billionaire investor; and many leading clerics.
“Sheikh Osama wanted to keep a record who give money,” Moussaoui said in imperfect English, “who is to be listened to or who contributed to the jihad.” Moussaoui also said he discussed a plan to shoot down President George W. Bush’s Air Force One with a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, at a time when Bandar was the ambassador to the United States and considered so close to the Bush family that his nickname was “Bandar Bush.”
Moussaoui claimed, too, that he passed letters between Osama bin Laden and then Crown Prince Salman, who recently became king upon the death of his brother King Abdullah.
While the Saudi government denied Moussaoui’s accusations, Saudi and other Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms have been identified in recent years as financial backers of Sunni militants fighting in Syria to overthrow Assad’s largely secular regime, with al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front the major rebel force benefiting from this support.
Shared Israeli Interests
The Israelis also have found themselves on the side of these Sunni militants in Syria because the Israelis share the Saudi view that Iran and the so-called “Shiite crescent” reaching from Tehran to Beirut is the greatest threat to their interests.
In September 2013, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, then a close Netanyahu adviser, told the Jerusalem Post that Israel favored the Sunni extremists over Assad. “The greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc,” Oren told the Jerusalem Post in an interview.
“We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.” He said this was the case even if the “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
In June 2014, speaking as a former ambassador at an Aspen Institute conference, Oren expanded on his position, saying Israel would even prefer a victory by the brutal Islamic State over continuation of the Iranian-backed Assad in Syria. “From Israel’s perspective, if there’s got to be an evil that’s got to prevail, let the Sunni evil prevail,” Oren said.
That hostility toward Assad’s regime has taken a tactical form with Israeli forces launching attacks inside Syria that benefit Nusra Front. For instance, on Jan. 18, 2015, Israel attacked Lebanese-Iranian advisers assisting Assad’s government in Syria, killing several members of Hezbollah and an Iranian general. These military advisers were engaged in operations against Nusra Front.
Meanwhile, Israel has refrained from attacking Nusra militants who have seized Syrian territory near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. One source familiar with U.S. intelligence information on Syria told me that Israel has a “non-aggression pact” with Nusra forces, who have even received medical treatment at Israeli hospitals.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have found themselves on the same side in other regional struggles, including support for the military’s ouster of the elected Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, but most importantly they have joined forces in their hostility toward Shiite-ruled Iran.
I first reported on the growing relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia in August 2013 in an article entitled “The Saudi-Israeli Superpower,” noting that the complementary strengths of the two countries made their alliance a potentially powerful influence in the world. Israel could wield political and media clout while the Saudis could use their oil, money and investments.
At the time, the story was met with much skepticism, but, increasingly, the secret alliance has gone public. On Oct. 1, 2013, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu hinted at it in his United Nations General Assembly speech, which was largely devoted to excoriating Iran over its nuclear program and threatening a unilateral Israeli military strike.
Amid the bellicosity, Netanyahu dropped in a largely missed clue about the evolving power relationships in the Middle East, saying: “The dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and the emergence of other threats in our region have led many of our Arab neighbors to recognize, finally recognize, that Israel is not their enemy. And this affords us the opportunity to overcome the historic animosities and build new relationships, new friendships, new hopes.”
The next day, Israel’s Channel 2 TV news reported that senior Israeli security officials had met with a high-level Gulf state counterpart in Jerusalem, believed to be Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States who was then head of Saudi intelligence.
Even the MSM
The reality of this unlikely alliance has now even reached the mainstream U.S. media. For instance, Time magazine correspondent Joe Klein described the new coziness in an article in the Jan. 19, 2015 issue.
He wrote: “On May 26, 2014, an unprecedented public conversation took place in Brussels. Two former high-ranking spymasters of Israel and Saudi Arabia Amos Yadlin and Prince Turki al-Faisal sat together for more than an hour, talking regional politics in a conversation moderated by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius.
“They disagreed on some things, like the exact nature of an Israel-Palestine peace settlement, and agreed on others: the severity of the Iranian nuclear threat, the need to support the new military government in Egypt, the demand for concerted international action in Syria. The most striking statement came from Prince Turki. He said the Arabs had ‘crossed the Rubicon’ and ‘don’t want to fight Israel anymore.’”
Israel and Saudi Arabia also have collaborated in efforts to put the squeeze on Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who is deemed a key supporter of both Iran and Syria. The Saudis have used their power over oil production to drive down prices and hurt Russia’s economy, while U.S. neoconservatives who share Israel’s geopolitical world view were at the forefront of the coup that ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych a year ago.
Saudi hostility toward Russia also surfaced in 2013 when Bandar met Putin and delivered what Putin viewed as a crude threat to unleash Chechen terrorists against the Sochi Winter Olympics if Putin did not reduce his support for the Syrian government.
According to a leaked diplomatic account of a July 31, 2013 meeting in Moscow, Bandar informed Putin that Saudi Arabia had strong influence over Chechen extremists who had carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Russian targets and who had since deployed to join the fight against the Assad regime in Syria.
As Bandar called for a Russian shift toward the Saudi position on Syria, he reportedly offered guarantees of protection from Chechen terror attacks on the Olympics. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year,” Bandar reportedly said. “The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”
Putin responded, “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism.”
Bandar’s Mafia-like threat toward the Sochi games a version of “nice Olympics you got here, it’d be a shame if something terrible happened to it” failed to intimidate Putin, who continued to support Assad. But Putin became obsessed with security at Sochi, distracting him from the worsening crisis in Ukraine where Yanukovych was ousted in a neocon-orchestrated coup on Feb. 22, 2014, a day before the Olympic torch was extinguished.
Now, with Obama nearing a possible agreement to rein in but not end Iran’s nuclear program against the wishes of the Israeli-Saudi tag team the leak in the Israeli media suggests that Netanyahu with the support of Saudi Arabia’s royal family may be contemplating his own bombing campaign against Iran.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
Wow, talk about realpolitik, an Israeli-Saudi partnership. I think at this point Netanyahu doesn’t trust Obama over Syria-and rightly so-and has now cozied up with the Saudis in this geopolitical chess match. With the recent revelation that Obama threatened to shoot down Israeli fighter jets crossing Iraqi airspace into Syria last year, who can blame him? It’s a sorry state of affairs that we can’t support one of our strongest allies in Israel. Israel should do whatever it takes to stay safe and secure with or without a U.S. presence. Shame on Obama for letting down a true friend.
utter and complete bs.
Jeremiah 49:34-39New International Version (NIV)
A Message About Elam (Ancient region inside of present-day Iran and also location of Bushehr reactor).
Their (Elam) “exiles” will be scattered to all regions of the earth. Could this be due to radioactivity and fallout after an attack on the reactor?
34 This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah:
35 This is what the Lord Almighty says:
“See, I will break the bow of Elam,
the mainstay of their might.
36
I will bring against Elam the four winds
from the four quarters of heaven;
I will scatter them to the four winds,
and there will not be a nation
where Elam’s exiles do not go.
37
I will shatter Elam before their foes,
before those who want to kill them;
I will bring disaster on them,
even my fierce anger,â€
declares the Lord.
“I will pursue them with the sword
until I have made an end of them.
38
I will set my throne in Elam
and destroy her king and officials,â€
declares the Lord.
39
“Yet I will restore the fortunes of Elam
in days to come,â€
declares the Lord.
You mean they Lord wants to kill innocent people right? How? with sword? Or maybe people changed his message ..
I don’t believe it
It’s not Lord message
I’m sorry for you and for your thoughts
Well Russia just signed a deal with Cyprus to dock naval vessels there and may have an airforce base coming in the future. Let’s hope that their (now) nuclear base in Syria and Cyprus base are deterrents to the Fascist Regime occupying Palestine. Saudi Arabia is just another vassal state that will collapse alongside its masters in Tel Aviv and DC.
The last “fascist regime” occupying colonial Palestine was Great Britain. Israel, nation state of the Jewish people, liberated the Holy Land from foreign rule in 1948. “Palestine” is an outdated colonial moniker. Not a nation, not a people, just a lame attempt to recolonize the Holy Land.
It’s not as if Israel and Saudi Arabia haven’t already conspired to get us in the middle of the Middle-East mess…militarily…we call it 9/11.
Those twirps are all bluff. One little swat for each of them would put them back into the poverty they so abhor. Why is it the real bad guys always smirk and swagger, so certain are they that their plans will be fulfilled? It’s because the good guys have nothing to gain from stopping the bad guys, and can’t see for sure how much they have to lose if they don’t. Who really believes we are headed for nuclear war?
On January 20 in Teheran, Russia and Iran signed an agreement on military cooperation. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Iranian Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister Hossein Dehghan signed the new agreement. Remarking on its significance, Shoigu stated, “A theoretic base of cooperation in the military sphere has been created.†He added that the two countries have agreed on “bilateral cooperation in practical regards and to promote an increase in the military capabilities of the armed forces of our countries.†The two also agreed on “the importance of the need to develop Russia and Iran’s cooperation in the joint struggle against meddling in the affairs of the region by external forces that are not part of it was framed,†Iranian Defense Minister Dehghan declared. To make sure no one mistook who he meant, he added that the reason for aggravation in the situation of the region was a US policy that “meddles in the domestic affairs of other countries.â€
The coming closer of the two Eurasian countries, both bordering the strategic Caspian Sea, has enormous implications for global geopolitics. The Obama Administration has tried to woo Iran in a stick (economic sanctions) and carrot (promise of lifting same) manner over the past eighteen months to get Teheran to agree major concessions on her nuclear program. Until recently, despite US sanctions over Ukraine, Russia was willing to show “good faith†to Washington by participating in the 5-1 nuclear negotiations with Iran to persuade Teheran to make major concessions on its nuclear program, one where Russia built the just-completed Bushehr nuclear power plant, the first in the Middle East. That phase is clearly over and Iran’s hand in the negotiations with the US, France, Germany, UK has just got stronger, sanctions or not.
Putin and Iran Do a ‘Game Changer’
By F. William Engdahl
http://journal-neo.org/2015/02/22/putin-and-iran-do-a-game-changer/
These Saudi clowns make me ROFL…
Benjamin We will wait for you in Tehran try your best LOL …
THIS CONSPIRACY WAS NEVER REALLY “SECRET” OR” COVERT”….
It is important for this story and its constituent parts be made public and fully aired.
Prehaps the US Congress and its relevant committees in both Houses would like to
summons and interrogate high officials of both the Israeli and Saudi governments to
fully explain their cooperation with ISIS. Undoubtedly their currnet dishonest and manipulative responses are probably already prepared in the respective nations.
Should war develop between Israel and Saudi Arabia against Syria or Iran, there seems to be no logical reason why they should expect no retaliation and loss to themselves.
It should be duly noted that Saudi Arabia’s fabricated concern for Palestine is meaningless.
One can only suppose that Saudi Arabia combines with Israel in its decades-old
dishonest cries for a “negotiated” peace (only on their terms, of course.) The two-state solution solution is no longer viable. As another commenter once observed, it’s like asking the lamb to “NEGOTIATE” with gthe wolf.
Once again, deepest appreciation to Robert Parry for his investigative reporting on this
key issue.
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
The nuclear armed country who scraes me the most is Israel.
I have read for years that there is behind-the-scenes maneuvering to base Israeli military assets in Azerbaijan to make an aerial attack on Iran more feasible. Any updated info on this?
What a way to pump up oil prices for the GOP.
That Saudi Arabia would betray it’s Muslim brothers, to such an extent to help Israel launch a war against against ran just because it is Shia Muslim instead of Sunni Muslim, is a treacherous thing for them to do. The last thing this region and the world need is another war.
The whole world also seems to ave amnesia or its mouth taped closed, when it refuses to even mention that it iis Israeli that has the nuclear bombs, introduced them to the region, and wouldn’t hesitate to use them against its neighbors if it saw fit to do so.
That the Saudis would ally itself with Israel who persecute and ethnically cleanse Musliims from Jerusalem, to help Israel attack a fellow Muslim nation, is nothing sort of the lowest form of betrayal.
Fred, Both Israel and Saudi Arabia want to neutralize any Iranian power in the region, and share it between themselves. Also the Sunni Shia divide runs pretty deep in places and Saudi Arabian Wahhabism only amplifies the danger. Will they go ahead, I think not and hope not. I think it is a ploy to further try to draw the US into action.
It will further increase the divide developing between Israel and the US of late.
I can’t see the interested parties openly stating their intentions.
Whether it makes sense or not, the periodic “scares” by Israel have happened all the same.
2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/21/opinion/21iht-edcreveld_ed3_.html
2008
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/23/is_israel_preparing_to_bomb_iran
2012
http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/02/26/will-saudi-arabia-support-an-israeli-attack-on-iran-in-june/
So the prospect of Saudi Arabia joining the fun is an older story. Frankly, I can’t see the Saudis as being that stupid. IMO there is no way under heaven their cooperation and therefore co-belligerance could be kept secret. Israel is a difficult target which is far away, but Saudi Arabia is an easy one and very close to Iran. Highly accurate short-range rockets could smash their oil facilities with ease.
In any event, if there is cooperation, I’d expect it to be more involved than passive fly-over rights. More likely Israel would and sneak in a couple dozen of its best F-15 fighters (with removable Saudi decals) and park them out of sight in an out-of-the-way hanger complex. They’d take off carrying fake Saudi IFF equipment with the pilots broadcasting whatever language the Saudis speak. They’d attempt to get very close to Iran without suspicions being aroused and try to smash critical air defense installations.
This thread reminds me of another current one – ought European Jews go to Israel? If they do, they’re going to be subjected to these periodic scare tactics by the loons running the shitty little apartheid nation. They’ll have to swallow the whole concept of the Palestinians being sub-humans. (it’ll be be a lot like pre-Civil War in the Old South – not embracing the sub-human Negro dogma could cause you to become seriously dead!) And they may be putting themselves in real danger, for Hezbollah’s rockets aren’t gong to become any less accurate. If they stay home in France, it’s true that some French Nazis could attack them. It’s also true that Holy Israel might send some bomb-throwing undercover types to punish them for staying and to encourage them to rethink their decision.
The Great Game is just another name for unprovoked Western aggression against Russia. During the Summer Olympics in China, Bush’s administration had Georgia launch its invasion of Russian allies. During the Winter Olympics in Russia, the Obama administration gave the okay for the coup d’etat in Ukraine. The Western powers led by the U.S. have no moral standing in the world today, only a mask of benign humanitarianism that covers rampant greed and villainous manipulation. If there is a Great Game, the U.S. and NATO use everyone as pawns. Then the Western propaganda mill demonizes others as the cause of all the trouble.
Israel may have the best & latest technologically advanced war power, but will never be able to attack Iran even though it has been talking about it seriously for the past decade. There are some factors are involved. First: Iran’s population is 10 times of Israel. Second: Iran is almost 80 times bigger than Israel. Third: Iran’s nuclear sites are spread throughout the country (smart move, after seeing what happened to Iraq & Syria in the past). The most important part of this equation is that Persians unlike Arabs will not sto still, they will retaliate at any cost (Shia mentality), so it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out that the bottom line is the outcome of any conflict between these two countries will be disastrous for the whole world & will cause a lot of casualties around the glob. Prime minster of Israel needs to change his behavior & stop worring about leaving a legacy behind for himself at the cost of unaccountable casualty that this will cost. He also needs to stop spreading lies about how dangerous Iran may become in the future. As we all know despite of what west portraits Iran (by calling it axis of evil), Iranian’s have been more rational in their decision making regarding the global affair than their westerners, so you be the judge & ask yourself a simple question why is Israel treats it’s Palestinians countrymen like nazi Germany did to Jews? So how can they expect everybody to be sympathetic towards them & how they suffered in the hands of Germans when they are doing the exact same thing to Arabs, so how do you justify that?!
Israel will not attack Iran until Syria and Hizballah mililtary capabilities are blunted by either ISIS or a US/NATO attack on Syria followed by an Israeli attack on Lebanon through the Bekaa Valley. This is the sole reason for the Syria crisis.
Obama and the EU have been trying to get a war with Syria a la Libya for several years. Russia and China have vetoed their UN Security Council Resolutions, and Assad has not responded to military provocations conducted by Turkey and Israel in the past (the most recent being Turkey’s incursion into Syria allegedly to relieve some of its soldiers guarding a tomb – a transparent ploy.)
Another ploy was the “chemical weapons attack” alleged to be by Syria, but later proven to be a false flag by the insurgents. Obama was prepared to go to war with Syria at that point, but was outmaneuvered by Vladimir Putin who got Assad to agree to remove Syria’s chemical weapons. This is one reason Obama re-started the Cold War with Russia – he was furious that Putin made him look like a fool.
Now the intention appears to be to have ISIS attack Hizballah in Lebanon, perhaps providing Israel will another means of attacking Lebanon at some point.
The problem for Israel is the possibility that Syria and/or Hizballah will enter an Israel-Iran war on Iran’s side. While it is not certain either would directly support Iran in such a war, Israel’s military planners cannot assume they won’t. Hizballah especially with its 50,000 or more rockets capable of covering much of Israel can’t be allowed to enter the war effectively. That would cause much of Israel’s population to be forced to remain in bomb shelters for much of every day, causing economic damage and possibly causing the electorate to vote out the ruling party in the next elections. So Israel must find a way to either destroy Hizballah’s missile arsenal or force Hizballah further north in Lebanon so its arsenal is less effective. The same applies to Syria, except there Israel would prefer the US and NATO to take over the goal of destroying much of Syria’s missile arsenal.
This is the SOLE reason for the Syria crisis. Until this is resolved, it’s unlikely Israel will attack Iran – although Netanyahu must be getting desperate as he won’t rule Israel forever, and Israel can’t afford to wait another ten years to attack Iran.
It should be noted that the goal of Israel in attacking Iran is NOT to destroy Iran’s nuclear energy program. Israel knows full well that Iran does NOT have a nuclear weapons program. The goal of Israel in attacking Iran is to draw the US into the war and delegate the destruction of Iran to the US. This is also the goal of the neocons and the Obama administration. People who think Obama is not on board with this are fools. People who think that Israel will never attack Iran because Israel is not capable of defeating Iran are also fools. Israel doesn’t have to be successful – it just has to START the war.
It also doesn’t matter that the US will never defeat Iran any more than they defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan. What matter for the US is the another expensive war is conducted for another ten years in the Middle East, so the US military-industrial complex can profit accordingly.
The same, by the way, applies to the Ukraine crisis. The US will continue to force a war between Ukraine and Russia until that war becomes a NATO-Russia war which will give a huge shot in the arm for the US military-industrial complex. That this might also lead to a nuclear WWIII apparently doesn’t matter to the cretins running the US.
I enjoyed reading your lengthy comment. Very informative. Keep up the posting of your views – very nice to read and easy to understand.
john.
Notions that “Israel knows full well that Iran does NOT have a nuclear weapons program” and would attack Iran just to draw the US into the war and delegate the destruction of Iran to the US are fatuous beyond belief. (1) Iran has been actively pursuing both nuclear weapons and suitable missile delivery systems for years with the expertise of renegade Pakistani physicist A.Q. Khan and the aid of North Korea, viz., Iranian Shahab missiles are close copies of North Korea’s Taepodong missiles; (2) No sane Israeli leader would believe that its launching an unannounced war against Iran would “draw” the U.S. into militarily supporting it and thereby supposedly “finish” it, especially under Obama, whose antipathy towards Israel is a matter of ample public record. As such, Israel is not in any position to “delegate” to the U.S. any course of action; to allege same is just another old anti-Semitic carnard. If and when Israel attacks Iran militarily while Obama still rules, it will handle the matter decisively — solo — as it did with the Syrian nuclear reactor in Sept 2007 and the Iraqi Osirak reactor in Oct 1981. The core problem is that doing so this time might require the use of sub-launched nuclear cruise missiles, necessitating many greater casualties than Israel wants to inflict as a matter of military necessity and proportionality. However, given its past demonstrated ingenuity, if there’s a way to deliver adequate non-nuclear ordnance to accomplish the task, it will happen that way. In which case, Iran’s theocratic leadership may well be effectively targeted for decapitation as well, all to strongly blunt Iran’s capacity for retaliation. Apart from that, as a notorious Islamosymp, Obama will never have the U.S. attack Iran unless the Saudis who helped bankroll his campaigns direct him to do so.
They don’t have a nuclear weapons program….???? Alright.
As Osama Bin Laden made clear in one of his published videos, his decision to bring down the World Trade Center towers was and act of revenge motivated by President Ronald Reagan’s use of US Naval ships to bombard villages along the coast of Lebanon (which Bin Laden apparently witnessed) in support of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Reagan finally pulled US troops out of Lebanon after a truck bombing of an army barracks there killed hundreds of US servicemen in 1983. But Regan’s decision to support Israeli aggression ended up causing the deaths of thousands of additional American deaths on and after 9/11.
We presently have tens of thousands of American military personnel residing on ships that are bottled up on the Persian Gulf (like “sitting duck” targets for Iranian anti-ship missiles). It is naïve to assume that most of those military personnel won’t become casualties if President Obama allows Netanyahu to drag us into a war with Iran!
line 2
This was first reported by Parry in 2013 as he notes. It was denied by the Saudis at the time. To what advantage would they deny it now, as Parry seems to state? This is potentially a VERY serious development fraught with danger. I can’t see the interested parties openly stating their intentions. Could it be more a case of alarmism on Parry’s part? Strategically it makes sense but otherwise it makes no sense at all and to carry it out could be catastrophic. It seems inconceivable as a pressure tactic to flaunt this alliance, if such it is. The dimensions of this or the ramifications cover the entire Middle East and beyond.
error: meant to say in line to what advantage would they not deny it now, ….