Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler on Monday called on Israel to respect Iran’s sovereignty and refrain from attacking Iranian soil, highlighting warming ties between the Middle East rivals.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders that the international community should oblige Israel “to respect the sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran and not to violate its lands”.
Sunni Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have often found themselves on opposing sides of regional conflicts including Syria’s.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia mobilised a military coalition to support Yemen’s internationally recognised government after Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa and advanced towards the main southern city of Aden.
The following year, Riyadh and Tehran severed ties following attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran during protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
In March 2023, however, they announced a rapprochement deal brokered by China.
Though issues remain in the complex relationship, the rapprochement amounts to a signature diplomatic achievement for Prince Mohammed, who has taken a more conciliatory approach to regional diplomacy in recent years.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have maintained high-level contact as part of efforts to contain the war that broke out in Gaza following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.
This diplomatic outreach led to the first phone call between Prince Mohammed and Iran’s then-president Ebrahim Raisi — just five days after the war broke out — and a visit by Raisi to Riyadh a year ago for a joint summit of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
In October, Saudi Arabia announced it had held war games with Iran and other countries in the Sea of Oman.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s top military official, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, arrived in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials.
Prince Mohammed and Iran’s current president, Masoud Pezeshkian, spoke by phone on Sunday ahead of Monday’s summit, which is a follow-up to the gathering in November 2023.
Pezeshkian is not attending because of pressing “executive matters”, an Iranian government statement said, and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref travelled to Riyadh instead.
Challenge for Trump
The Gaza war and subsequent fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah raised fears of even wider conflagration. Iran this year twice fired missiles at Israel, prompting Israeli retaliation, most recently on October 26 when it hit Iranian military facilities.
Before the war in Gaza, Saudi Arabia was in talks about a so-called mega-deal that would have seen it recognise Israel in exchange for deeper security and bilateral ties with the United States.
That would have built on the Abraham Accords brokered during Donald Trump’s first term as president.
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.”