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, in an unusual post on its royal family’s website.
It referenced a story on KAN News about 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.
Riyadh subtly admits it played a part in defense against Iran
Jordan has been public about its involvement, while the closest Saudi Arabia has come to acknowledging it was the story it posted on its website summarizing what a source from the Saudi royal family had told KAN.
“The individual subtly acknowledges Saudi Arabia’s supposed involvement in thwarting Iranian attack drones bound for Israel the previous evening, citing that Saudi Arabian airspace automatically intercepts “any suspicious entity””, the report on the royal family’s website stated.
“The same figure takes a swing at Iran, accusing them of instigating a conflict in Gaza. This, they suggest, is a deliberate attempt to unravel the progress established towards normalizing relations with Israel, as per KAN’s report,” it added.
“In the words of the official, as put forth by KAN, “Iran is a nation that endorses terrorism, and the world should have curtailed it much earlier,” it said.
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.
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