The secretiveness involved in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 200-minute (on Nov 22) brief trip to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea resort of Neom – and that too along with Mossad chief Yossi Cohen – reminded one of the role T E Lawrence (popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia), a British spy played at the height of World War-I, about 105 years back. It was at Lawrence’s instigation that Arabs of Hejaz, under the leadership of Sharif of Makkah, Hussein Bin Ali, revolted against the Ottoman Turks. (Incidentally on November 27, just five days after this visit, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of the Research and Innovation Organisation of Iranian defence ministry was assassinated by unknown gunmen outside Tehran. Iran directly blamed Israeli spy agency for this terrorist attack.)
The Turks, who initially in the War defeated the combined Allied army under the leadership of Admiral Winston Churchill, in Gallipoli, subsequently lost Syria and Palestine just because of the backstabbing from the Arabs. While Palestine came under the British Mandate, Syria went to France. In World War-I Germany was the ally of Ottoman Turks.
That development followed the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 and laid the foundation stone of the Jewish state on May 14, 1948. Thus Hejaz (long before becoming a part of Saudi Arabia) played a part in the creation of Israel.
Hussein Bin Ali was rewarded by the British for his loyalty and his sons were made the king of Jordan and Iraq. A century later Saudi Arabia and Israel are clandestinely working on the establishment of diplomatic relationship.
It is also true that after the coming into effect of what is called Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Sep 23, 1932 after the merger of Najd and Hejaz the ruling Saud family adopted a different policy.
Though Israel was created in 1948 after the partition of Palestine, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, now under the House of Sauds, opposed the Jewish state. After the discovery of oil and later the petro-dollar boom Riyadh started playing a more important role and tried to emerge as the leader of Islamic world. With the two holiest Islamic shrines in Makkah and Madinah and the third, Al-Aqsa in the hands of the new state of Israel (after 1967), it was somewhat natural for the Saudis to project themselves as the leader of the Muslim world.
Though on the issue of Israel the Saudis did support the frontline Arab states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, it has serious differences with Cairo, especially when it was under the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser. As the latter was somewhat Left-leaning and a part of the then Soviet bloc, Saudis were always tilted towards the West – the United Kingdom and the United States.
Under King Faisal, and that too after the 1973 Arab-Israel War, Riyadh tried to assert itself and used oil as a weapon against the West, which always used to back Israel.
King Faisal was however assassinated by his nephew on March 25, 1975. However, it was the Islamic Revolution in Iran on February 11, 1979 and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan during Christmas of 1979 which changed the whole scenario. Another development was the decision of the then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to visit Israel and subsequently Camp David Accords were signed on September 17, 1978. Israel agreed to vacate Sinai Desert which it had captured from Egypt during the Six Day War in June 1967.
But Saudi Arabia, now under the kingship of Khalid, was more alarmed by Ayatollah Khomeini-led revolution in Iran. Though the Salafi Saudis took the excuse of the rise of Shiism, actually they feared that the overthrow of Shah of Iran may spark off anti-monarchy sentiment in the entire region.
So the Gulf leaders instigated Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein to attack Iran, when the latter was still busy stabilising itself after the revolution. On September 22, 1980 Iraq attacked Iran with the full backing of the Gulf states. Iraq could achieve nothing after the eight years of war. Instead it attacked the old friend Kuwait on August 2, 1990.
Saddam’s stupidity created a sharp division within the Sunni world and opened the scope for a US-led invasion. Iraq was badly destroyed and millions lost their lives.
But the western powers did not remove Saddam from the throne in 1991.
The western powers once again took an excuse to attack Iraq after the 9/11 strikes on Twin towers and Pentagon. The US took the excuse that Saddam was making weapons of mass destruction – a blatant lie deliberately spread to befool the people across the world.
Since the two Gulf Wars against Iraq was launched from Saudi territory, it was natural that Riyadh fully fell into the laps of Washington and London.
Though both Republicans and Democrats have more or less similar policy in West Asia, the signing of nuclear deal with Iran during the Obama administration alarmed Saudis.
However, President Donald Trump soon after coming to power cancelled the deal though the European powers opposed this move.
Now that Trump is on way out, Saudis are in a hurry to form any anti-Iran alliance as Riyadh fears that the new Joe Biden establishment may follow the Obama policy so far dealing with Tehran is concerned.
A sovereign nation is free to establish diplomatic relationship with any country of its choice. But the manner in which all these developments took place has come as a surprise. Why did the intelligence chief too accompany PM Netanyahu to a country not friendly towards Israel. What has Yossi Cohen to do in diplomatic manoeuvring when actually the foreign minister should have accompanied him.
Establishing diplomatic relationship with Israel is one thing, but forming an anti-Iran alliance with the Jewish state is quite different and will certainly alarm other countries of the region.
It is true Saudi Arabia never had any territorial dispute with Israel, yet it is a fact that Riyadh was opposed to the Jewish state because it wanted to emerge as a leader of the Islamic world.
Incidentally, Netanyahu rushed to Neom at the request of US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who too was holding talks with Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. Pompeo, who is now on way out, had just a few days earlier visited Israel and became the first senior US diplomat to visit West Bank and Golan Heights.
If Trump administration really succeeds in brokering a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia – as it has done in the case with UAE, Bahrain and Sudan – Riyadh will certainly lose its claim of being the leader of the Islamic world, as it is virtually on the verge of abandoning the Palestinian cause. The truth is that it has become discredited long back because of its dubious policies. In the last over a century it was only during the 1973 Arab-Israel War that Saudi Arabia ever came close to be considered a leader of the Islamic world. The bogey of Iran is not going to benefit Riyadh at all. In the last 41 years many such efforts have been made to encircle Iran but the US has largely failed.