In recent days, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakji, on behalf of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, went on a tour of Arab countries to explain Iran's position and the expected regional consequences as a result of an expected Israeli attack on Iran in the coming days.
YONI BEN-MENACHEM -- At the same time, Iranian President Massoud Pazkhian met in Doha with the ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamed, who is known for his good relations with Tehran.
Security sources say that the fear in the Gulf countries is that the military escalation between Israel and Iran will harm their security, their economy and their political stability. Some of these countries, such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have normalization agreements with Israel, and Saudi Arabia is also negotiating with the US and Israel on a normalization agreement between itself and Israel.
According to sources in the Gulf, the Gulf countries have informed Arakaji that their position is neutral. They do not want to be involved in the military conflict between Israel and Iran, and they will not allow Israeli Air Force planes to fly in their airspace to attack targets in Iran.
The US also fears that Iran and its militias may attack its military bases in the Gulf countries as a response to an effective Israeli military attack on targets in Iran.
The Gulf countries are in a quandary. On the one hand, an Israeli attack on Iran would weaken the Islamic Republic's regional influence, but in the longer term it could undermine regional stability. The official position of the Gulf Council is that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas is the solution to the crisis.
The assessment at the political level in Israel is that the Gulf states will indeed keep their promise to Iran, but the problem is that this is a conflict between Shiite Iran and the Sunni Gulf states.
They do not believe in any Iranian promise, and work to secretly tighten ties with the US so that it will protect them from Iran. The Iranians can find enough claims or invent enough lies to attack Gulf countries in order to endanger the security interests of the US and Israel.
Yoni Ben Menachem, A NEWSRAEL Contributor, is a Middle East senior analyst ,a journalist and the former CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority(IBA). He has decades of experience in written and video journalism. Ben Menachem’s path in the media world began as a producer for Japanese television in the Middle East. After that, he held many key positions in the media The Israeli: CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, director of “Kol Israel” Radio, reporter on West Bank and Gaza Strip affairs, political reporter and commentator, commentator on Middle East affairs and editor-in-chief and presenter of the program “Middle East Magazine”.