In return for recognising Israel, Saudi Arabia wants American weapons and nuclear technology
in the Middle East evoke such dread as “why aren’t you married?” It signals a judgmental grilling. Anyone can play interrogator: parents, taxi drivers—even an American president.
The prince had a ready answer. He wants a large dowry from the Americans: weapons, a security pact, and help with the kingdom’s fledgling nuclear programme . It would be less a Saudi-Israeli pact, in other words, than a Saudi-American one. For a time, a favourite diplomatic parlour game was to guess which Arab states might come next. Saudi Arabia always seemed like the big prize. It is the region’s largest economy, its diplomatic heavyweight, and the birthplace of Islam.
Yet Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, made no mention of it last month at a press conference in Riyadh alongside his American counterpart. Instead he spoke of needing a “pathway to peace” for Palestinians: without it, he said, “any normalisation will have limited benefits”. The rhetorical shift was not lost on listeners in Washington.
This points to a bigger problem with the hasty push for a deal. American supporters of a deal make several arguments in favour. One is that it could cement an alliance against Iran, a nemesis to Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi army is not known for its martial prowess, however. Israel would not want to rely on it in a conflict, and the Saudis, who signed a reconciliation deal with Iran in March, would probably prefer to sit one out anyway.
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