Israel, Kuwait secret talk will lead to Arab ties against Iran, claims Israeli FM

JERUSALEM: Israel is holding secret talks with some Arab states that do not recognize it, looking to establish diplomatic ties based on a common fear of Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday. Amongst the countries he was in contact with were Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Lieberman told newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth – the first such disclosure by a senior Israeli official.

Both these states, along with most other Arab nations, have traditionally been highly hostile towards Israel, which has only signed peace deals with two neighbours – Egypt and Jordan. However, anti-Israeli sentiment was being superseded by a growing concern over Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran’s regional allies, and the menace of Islamist militancy, Lieberman said.

“For the first time there is an understanding there that the real threat is not Israel, the Jews or Zionism. It is Iran, global jihad, (Lebanese Shiite guerrilla group) Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda,” the foreign minister said. “There are contacts, there are talks, but we are very close to the stage in which within a year or 18 months it will no longer be secret, it will be conducted openly,” added Lieberman, who is a far rightist in the coalition government.

Yedioth paraphrased Lieberman as saying some new Israeli-Arab peace accords would be signed in 2019. “I’m certain that by then we will have a situation in which we have full diplomatic relations with most of the moderate Arab states. And you can count on my word,” he said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long hinted that Israel and the Gulf states share a similar goal in halting Iran’s nuclear program, saying they all saw a mortal threat in its ambitious atomic drive. Iran denies that it is planning to build nuclear weapons.

Senior Israeli officials have also said that like themselves, moderate Sunni states are worried that Washington was not taking a tough enough line with Tehran. However, analysts have scoffed at the idea that ties between Israel and much of the Arab world could be normalised while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained unresolved. US-brokered peace talks between the two are floundering, with no indication that a resolution is anywhere in sight.