Israeli media have expressed deep concern and misgivings about the restoration of Saudi-Iranian relations, calling the achievement of an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia an Israeli failure.
Israel’s Kan channel quoted a senior political source as saying that “opposition leader Yair Lapid is responsible for the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran,” noting that “Saudi Arabia feels the presence of American and Israeli weakness.” , and therefore went to other horizons.
Referring to the same channel’s Arab affairs columnist, Roy Casey, he said: “The agreement should not be underestimated, but we must not become hysterical”, adding that “we must wait to see if this agreement is implemented.” implemented and how it will be implemented. “Will the embassies of the two countries open in two months? It will be interesting to see,” he asked.
Case pointed out that the most important point to focus on, in his opinion, is “Chinese mediation”, emphasizing the need for its further development.
In turn, military analyst Carmella Menashe confirmed that the agreement is of great concern to Israel, asking in an interview with several Israeli media the question: “Where was the intelligence? Did she know? Because we didn’t know about it!”
As for Israel’s Channel 12 political commentator Dana Weiss, she stated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent his entire tenure fighting Iran, but we are now in a situation where Iran is well on its way to getting rich for score 90%.
She added that Netanyahu promised during this period that he would be able to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia, and now we see how this is receding, stressing that this is a very big regional damage.
Said Itamar Eichner, diplomatic correspondent of the newspaper Yediot Ahronot In its analysis: “The China-brokered agreement signed on Friday by Saudi Arabia and Iran is a dramatic move that is an expression of distrust of the American leadership, as well as an expression of Saudi distrust of Netanyahu’s vision of isolating Iran. .. Just this morning, Netanyahu mentioned his vision of normalizing relations between the two countries. The two countries have a railway line from Saudi Arabia to Haifa.
He continued: “In practice, Saudi Arabia’s decision can be seen as a ‘slap’ in Israel’s face. Israel should be concerned about the possibility that the Saudis have come to the conclusion that Israel does not have a credible military option and would therefore rather try to appease the beast.” Iran and negotiate with him.
In turn, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennet attacked Netanyahu, saying that “the resumption of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is a dangerous development for Israel, a political victory for Iran and a flagrant failure, negligence and weakness on the part of the Netanyahu government.”
Bennett added: “The countries of the world and the region are watching as Israel is in conflict with a government mired in systematic self-destruction. These countries are currently choosing the active side to work on.”
As for Yair Lapid, Bennett’s partner in the previous government, he emphasized that “the agreement is a complete and serious failure of the foreign policy of the Israeli government, and this is the collapse of the regional defensive wall that we have begun to build against Iran.”
On Friday, Iran and Saudi Arabia announced in a joint statement that they have agreed to resume dialogue and diplomatic relations at the initiative of China and reopen embassies in the two countries within two months.
Source: Agencies + Together + Yediot Ahronot
