Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted “new friendships” his nation has formed throughout the Arab world on Thursday, calling it an “unintended consequence” of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“By empowering Iran, it brought Israel and many Arab states closer together than ever before, in an intimacy and friendship that I have not seen in my lifetime and would have been unimaginable a few years ago,” Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly.
Israel does not have formal diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia and most other Arab nations, in part due to the perennially unresolved over the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But Saudi Arabia and most other U.S. allies in the Middle East shared Israel’s fear of the Iran deal, even as European allies backed then-President Barack Obama’s efforts. Even the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem in May didn’t distract one member of the Arab League from criticizing Iran over a clash with Israel.
“As long as Iran continues the current status quo of its forces and rockets operating in the region, any country — including Israel — has the right to defend itself by eliminating the source of danger,” Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa tweeted in May.
Iran, of course, is aware of this dynamic. “You are mistaken if you think Iran is not your friend, but the US and Israel are,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last year, in a message addressed to Saudi Arabian leaders.
Israel has been discreet about the relationship with Saudi Arabia and others, to avoid provoking a backlash from the populations of those countries. So far, only Jordan and Egypt have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
“Really, since the signing of the nuclear deal in 2015, there has been sustained chatter about what is being described as a new regional architecture,” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner in May. “They don’t use the word ‘peace’ when the Israelis talk about this . . . but the idea is that there is kind of a new understanding that Iran is the main problem in the region, that the Palestinian issue is secondary.”
But Netanyahu broke with that rhetorical restraint on Thursday. “Israel deeply values these new friendships,” he said. “I hope the day will soon arrive when Israel will be able to expand peace, a formal peace, beyond Egypt and Jordan to other Arab neighbors, including the Palestinians.”
