Saudi Arabia says it helped defend Israel against Iran — report
By TOVAH LAZAROFF Published: APRIL 15, 2024 15:56Updated: APRIL 15, 2024 21:58
Saudi Arabia acknowledged that it had helped the newly forged regional military coalition — Israel, the United States, Jordan, the United Kingdom, and France — repel an Iranian attack against the Jewish state early Sunday morning, according to a story on KAN News.
The story spoke of the Saudi involvement in the military defensive operation in which 99% of the Iranian drones and missiles were destroyed before hitting their targets.
Many of the drones and missiles had to travel over Jordanian and Saudi airspace to reach Israel.
A source connected to the Saudi Royal family told KAN that the country had a system to automatically intercept any suspicious entity in its airspace.
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That source also charged that Iran had instigated the Gaza war, through its proxy group Hamas, to thwart US efforts for a Saudi normalization deal.
Israel-Saudi normalization seemed on the horizon before Oct 7
In the weeks before Hamas’s October 7 invasion, the United States had been involved in intense diplomatic activity to promote a three-way deal that would have included a strategic pact between Riyadh and Washington against Iran, a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia and Israel, and a renewed pathway to Palestinian statehood.Hamas's October 7 attack against Israel scuttled those efforts but did not hinder the ability of Western powers, with armies stationed in the region to work together with Arab partners, including Saudi Arabia, to build a military alliance against Iran.
The joint defensive military maneuvers marked the first time that the five armies, with help from Saudi Arabia, had worked together as a nascent coalition to repel an Iranian attack.
