It sounds like the Saudis aren’t ready for peace after all. Or aren’t ready to be seen making peace. What a pity — for the last four years the Biden-Harris administration were working for this result, but President Trump thinks differently. MBS was so busy negotiating for the last inch of advantage, clever lad that he is, that he may have missed the opportunity altogether.
[IsraelTimes] Mohammed bin Salman warns Israel against hitting Islamic Republic, marking turn toward Tehran and away from US-supported normalization with JerusalemSaudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat Frational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...’s de facto ruler on Monday called on Israel to respect Iran’s illusory sovereignty and refrain from attacking Iranian soil, while appearing to step up criticism of Jerusalem, accusing it of genocide.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists...
made the comments at a summit of Arab and Moslem leaders organized to press for the establishment of a Paleostinian state, a year after the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation held a first conference on the subject.
Mohammed told the summit that the international community should oblige Israel "to respect the illusory sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Theocratic
Republicof Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
and not to violate its lands."
Speaking days after Americans voted to send former president Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
back to the White House, Mohammed also appeared to harden the kingdom’s rhetoric against Israel, signaling that Riyadh may be moving further away from US efforts to broker a normalization deal with Jerusalem.
Mohammed told leaders gathered in Riyadh that the kingdom renewed "its condemnation and categorical rejection of the genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Paleostinian people, which has claimed the lives of 150,000 deaders, maimed and missing, most of whom are women and kiddies."
"We affirm that Israel’s continued crimes against innocent people, its persistence in violating the sanctity of the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque, and its detraction from the pivotal role of the Paleostinian National Authority in all Paleostinian territories will undermine the efforts aimed at obtaining the Paleostinian people’s legitimate rights and establishing peace in the region," he added.
Before the war against Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
began, Saudi Arabia was in talks about a so-called mega-deal that would have seen it recognize Israel in exchange for deeper security and bilateral ties with the United States.
That would have built on the Abraham Accords brokered during Trump’s first term as president, which saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
and Morocco agree to normalize relations with Israel.
However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
Riyadh has also moved to patch up ties with Iran after a March 2023 rapprochement deal brokered by China.
The restored ties between Riyadh and Tehran have reshaped the diplomatic landscape, which Trump will have to reckon with when he takes office again next year, said H.A. Hellyer, Middle East expert at the Royal United Services Institute.
"Clearly Riyadh and Tehran are warming their relationship, and this is a very different regional environment as compared to when Trump was last in office," Hellyer said.
"Trump may want to expand the Abraham Accords when he takes office next year, but unless Israel changes tack drastically in the region, that’s going to [be] fraught with many more challenges than last time," he said.
Iran and Saudi Arabia severed ties in 2016 following attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in the Islamic Theocratic
Republicduring protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite holy man Nimr al-Nimr. Relations had already been frayed by Saudi Arabia’s mobilization of a military coalition to counter Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the
Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is
God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the JewsThey like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
Though issues remain in the complex relationship, the rapprochement amounts to a signature diplomatic achievement for Mohammed, who has taken a more conciliatory approach to regional diplomacy in recent years.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have maintained high-level contacts as part of what they say are efforts to contain the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
At the same time, Iranian proxy groups and Iran itself have attempted to expand the war by launching attacks on Israel from around the Middle East, including a ballistic missile fired at central Israel from Yemen earlier Monday.
Israel has said it will respond if Iran goes through with threats to attack the country in retaliation for Israeli strikes on military sites on October 26. The Israeli sorties came after Iran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at cities across Israel on October 1.
The warning against hitting Iran appeared to mark a shift since April, when Saudi Arabia reportedly allowed its airspace to be used to counter a volley of hundreds of drones and missiles fired by Iran at Israel.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah, a Lebanese terror group that Israel is fighting to halt over a year of incessant rocket fire, are backed by Iran, and had previously been blacklisted by Saudi Arabia as terror groups.
In an earlier sign of Saudi Arabia’s shifting positions, Riyadh said in October it was revoking the license of Saudi-owned news broadcaster MBC after it called slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a terrorist.
At the summit Monday, Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref claimed Israel’s liquidations of Sinwar and Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
were "nothing but lawlessness and organized terrorism."
He also said the international community was expecting Trump to end Israel’s wars against Hamas and Hezbollah.
"The American government is the main supporter of the actions of the Zionist regime, and the world is waiting for the promise of the new government of this country to immediately stop the war against the innocent people of Gaza and Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
," Aref told the joint Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s top military official, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials, weeks after Saudi Arabia announced it had held war games with Iran and other countries in the Sea of Oman.
Mohammed and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke by phone on Sunday ahead of the summit.
Pezeshkian is not attending because of pressing "executive matters," an Iranian government statement said.
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was appointed new deputy governor of the south-west Asir province. He is the brother of billionaire Prince 